There’s that old saying that if walks like a duck and quacks
like a duck, then it’s a duck. Well, in the future, things are
going to get a little more confusing. Soon, devices will walk like
humans; feel like humans and see like humans, but that won’t mean
it is a human.
To this point, I simply refer you to a handful of articles that
were published only this morning. The first explains how
researchers at Delft University in the Netherlands have developed
a robot that walks like a
human. The next article documents how researchers have
constructed a new
pet robot that communicates with humans only by touch. Lastly,
there was this report outlining how advances in image
recognition technology is improving to the point where computers
and robots will soon be as good (and eventually even better) than
humans at recognizing the images around them.
If you consider how all of these advances are likely to converge
with one another, it is easy to understand how robots might soon be
seeing, feeling, walking and even jumping their way around us.
To this last point about jumping, check out this short video
which demonstrates how a tiny robot can already leap – kind of like
Superman – “taller than the tallest building” :
Looking for more bits of inspiration from the animal
kingdom? Check out these past posts:
