Tele-presence Robot Appears in a Daytime Game Show

I saw The Price is Right the past Wednesday morning. And if you haven't seen that one, you'll never guess one of the prizes that were up for bid. Or... maybe you will.

It was a robot! A tele-presence robot. How cool is that?!

Jonathan from Let's Make a Deal appeared on the robot's monitor to describe the product.

You know, I thought one of these days a robot would be a possible prize on The Price is Right. First, for 2016 it may be another tele-presence robot or maybe a robot vacuum cleaner from iRobot. Next year, it could be a Meccanoid kit, or from Aldebaran Robotics, NAO or Pepper.

Offering a product as a prize is certainly a good way to market it. Good for robotics businesses too, in this case.

Who knows? Maybe in 2017, robots may become an occasional prize on The Price is Right or Let's Make a Deal. This Wednesday was just the beginning.

What are your thoughts on this little TV event, dear readers? What would it mean?

Let's start this conversation! Go ahead and leave your comment below.

Cartoon Robots in ROBOT Magazine!

I recently read the May/June 2016 issue of ROBOT Magazine, and to my surprise (and overwhelming joy!) an article about cartoon robots was featured in the issue. The article is written by Brett Weiss, a writer and expert in Pop Culture related to video games, TV and movies and other entertainment.

Here are some of my favorite cartoon robots that he mentions:

• WALL-E
• The Iron Giant
• Astroboy
• Baymax
• Optimus Prime
• Gigantor

I had coffee when I read the magazine. So I dunno if I became super hyper because of the coffee or because I read that article, or because I did both. But I was fired up!

It may have given me the jolt I needed to return to updating Cybernetic Dreams at a more regular schedule.

Right now, I don’t have a defined schedule for posting for Cybernetic Dreams. It is my personal robot blog, after all. I seem to post when I feel like it. And I know that I should have a more regular schedule if I hope to gain and keep more readers.

Watching I, ROBOT movie right now!

I'm watching I, ROBOT, on the AMC channel right now.  Because it's I,  ROBOT.

Whenever this film airs on a cable channel, and I've got nothing planned,  I just gotta watch it. It's my favorite robot film and possibly my all-time favorite movie.  I'll never get tired of it.

A special note: this is the first time I am posting to Cybernetic Dreams directly from my phone. Every once in a while, I just might do that.

Anyway, just wanted to share.  B-)

Do I Want to Write for a Magazine?

I am considering writing for Robot Magazine.  I am not a robot builder, or an engineer, although I considered taking up a mechanical engineering major when I was too late.  But I like writing about robot-related things, robot-related topics, including cybernetic body parts.  But I especially love A.I.-based robots and want to read more about them.

One television show, called Extant, features an android boy named Ethan and he is what his creators call a “Humanich.” The story is not about robots—or androids—but I love how robot ethics plays into some parts of the story.  There are robotic machines in this show too, and recently we met a sweeper robot that is badly damaged—a result of robot abuse—and Ethan the Humanich feels sorry for him and wants to take him home.

It would be interesting to observe the different between how John the creator/father treats his “son” Ethan and how he treats the sweeper robot.  Very different.

I have yet to read more of the Robot Ethics essay collection, but I’d like to write an essay of my own.  I also want to connect the essay and the articles to different robot stories I’ve encountered, either in reading or in television, and especially, in the real world.

I recently started watching an old Japanese anime on the Internet, called Brave Police J-Decker.  The animation is old but it is a show with a good story.  Deckard is a big man-made robot who transforms into a police car (yep… a transforming robot, but not the Hasbro Transformers), and after befriending a boy, his A.I. systems developed a consciousness and a personality.  He is able to laugh and smile and frown.

My life changed so much since I started this blog in June 2010.  Priorities have changed but, I still want to keep this blog going.  It is important that I keep my fascination with robots, androids and cyborgs a strong presence, in case someone out there would happen upon it and would like to join in a conversation about the related topics.

BotCon 2014, My First BotCon

I may have not said it so explicitly, but…I am a fan of Transformers.

When my sister and I found out there was going to be a BotCon in Pasedena this year, we decided we would go during the General Admission days Saturday and Sunday. 

We’ve been fans of Transformers for one year.  June 2013 we started watching Transformer’s Prime.  Then September we started watching Transformers Armada.  Starting in mid-April we’ve caught several good episodes of the classic 1984 Transformers cartoon on its second season.  We love all of these shows.  We haven’t finished watching the entirety of all three of them, but we will.  We now have seen all three Michael Bay Transformers movies and are at this moment giddily looking forward to Transformers: Age of Extinction—no matter what others will say.  It’s Transformers.  Why not.

I think it’s safe to say we aren’t noobs to the franchise anymore.

So we went to the Pasedena BotCon 2014 at the Pasedena Convention Center.  We didn’t know what to look for—we aren’t collectors of the Transformers toys—so upon entering the Exhibit Hall, we were quite lost on what to do.  It is very different from going to an anime convention.  The majority of items sold and displayed there is the Transformers toys, but there were other cool things too.  There were artists who displayed and sold their fan art.  There was a Transformers Art competition.  IDW Publishing was selling their Transformers comic books at their booth. The writers and artists of The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye and The Transformers: Robots In Disguise attended the Exhibit hall and sat at tables for fans to meet them and possibly buy their artwork.  James Roberts (writer of The Transformers: MTMTE) and John Barber (writer of The Transformers: RID) were there.  A video game demo was set up for Transformers Universe (the designs of the characters are reminiscent of Transformers Prime).

The panels were held at the Conference Rooms at another building within the Pasedena Convention Center.  Sis and I went to several of the panels in the course of the two General Admission days at BotCon.  It didn’t leave a whole lot of time to absorb everything that was in the Exhibit Hall.  We needed to eat and use the restroom too; if we wanted to enjoy ourselves, we needed to take care of ourselves too, and at least drink water and eat a snack if not a lunch. 

My personal favorite panel at BotCon was “James Roberts: Storyteller.”  I absolutely love the TF:MTMTE comic books; it was such a treat to hear him tell his fans about what was behind the scenes in creating the story for the comic book. There was a nice long Q and A session. Unfortunately I came up with a question to ask soon after the panel was finished.  And we didn’t get to meet him in person.  But it was so awesome just to be in the same room as James Roberts and hear him talk about his work.


We took pictures of some cosplayers (Sis took most of those—I took a couple myself), got to chat a bit with a couple of comic book artists, and we were even lucky get our copy of the Transformers: Dark Cybertron comic book volumes 1 and 2, before they ran out. This way we get more of TF: MTMTE and are introduced to TF: RID.  Maybe we might get into that and start reading TF:RID from the beginning sometime later.  Sis and I just finished Volume 5 of The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye and…well, we want to continue reading it.  At the risk of meaning we’d lose our favorite characters further in the story.  The stories in this comic book can be so heartbreaking sometimes.  I have a few favorite characters I don’t want to see killed off, as well as plenty of characters that are not necessarily my favorite but are cool to appear every once in a while.

FAVORITES:

*Rung

*Drift

*Skids

*Fortress Maximus

*Tailgate

*And maybe Rodimus.

I’d regret if I didn’t go to this year’s BotCon.  We owed it to ourselves as newish Transformers fans to be introduced into the world that is—well, for us, just nice toys to look at, but also the beautiful artwork and storytelling that goes into the franchise as a whole.

Almost Human: The Sci-Fi Show We Need Now, Part 1

So I’ve been watching Almost Human for the last several weeks and I have to say (needlessly) that it’s become my favorite live-action TV show.  I love Dorian; he is very funny and great and he looks like he can be my cousin (I am mixed and my hair is a short afro as well).  But generally, the show has a good mix of action, suspense, humor and soft moments.  It can get really intense, to the point where I don’t realize I am holding my breath for the entire segment of the show until commercial time.  The episode “Arrhythmia” was hard for me to watch without feeling a little angry, maybe even my blood pressure raised a little bit.  But I love this show.

Even more important to me about Almost Human besides great characters are the powerful issues it touches on:

• Civil rights, equality (MX’s priority to energy charging stations in an emergency, Dorian excluded)
• Ethics (especially robot ethics…)
• Derogatory words for robot (“synthetic” is neutral, but still offends Dorian in the beginning of the show because he is seen as fake).
• Fear (human fear and even Dorian’s fear)
• Crimes in the future (watch the show and see how scary crime is in this future!)
• Jobs in the future (such as the Recollectionist who helps people recall forgotten memories with the help of a machine)
• Money in the future (i.e. bit-coins)

I really enjoy Dorian and Detective Kennex’s car conversations.  They get to know each other, understand each other better during the drive and we as viewers get to learn about them both too…

When I think back about how they first worked together, Detective John Kennex has changed a lot.  In the beginning he called Dorian a “synthetic,” and Dorian responds “I am not a huge fan of that term.”  I can understand why: he feels human enough that being called a synthetic offends him, implies that he is not real and therefore his feelings and opinions don’t matter.

But they do matter because Dorian is not just an android cop, he’s a valuable friend.  Dorian saved John from quite a few tight traps so far.  Even volunteering to risk his functionality, his life, to save a human victim trapped in the middle of a crime.  He may be too altruistic for his own good.  It seems that in each episode that he gets into a fight, his injuries become more serious. 

I want to write a really good essay on Almost Human and the important issues and themes it brings up. It will have to wait a little longer. For now I want to say that that my guesses about the show (before I started watching it on its November 17, 2013 premiere) were fun to make and now I can enjoy the show as it is.  Of course I was wrong about the “experiment” thing…so far, I could be wrong and something might come up, right?  It repeats on Saturdays at 8:00pm if you can’t catch the regular airing on 8:00pm Mondays.

Please, I want to start a discussion!  If any of my readers want to say something about the show, your thoughts/feelings about it, share it in the comments or email me through Blogger.  Who else enjoys Almost Human?  Or who dislikes it?  I will be respectful of your opinions—just respect mine as well!   ;)

My Thoughts, Speculation on the TV Show “Almost Human”

I have not read any reviews of this show yet.  I want to just document some thoughts and personal speculations about Fox’s Almost Human before I watch it.  It’s like a fun guessing game to see how close my guesses are, if I‘m close or way off—because I’ve seen the promos for the show enough times to do it.

I decided to give this show a try.  I am curious as to how the main human cop character will interact with his new synthetic partner Dorian. 

The concept of synthetic humans is as possible as the existence of a synthetic hand or arm.   The popular idea a lot of people have about robots and androids is that they don’t have emotions, or don’t have the ability to understand them.  Simulating human emotions is not the same as understanding them or why they happen.  So I am also curious as to what the Dorian character will be like.  According to the promos on TV, he seems to have a sense of humor as well as a grasp of sarcasm.  Often for a new drama series, Fox shows some of the funny bits of the show, usually something one character says to the other.

Often this type of show makes me think of the relationship dynamic of Detective Spooner and the android non-partner Sonny in the film I, Robot.  Of course, Sonny was different from all the other NS-5s and displayed those differences clearly, from expressing anger to understanding trust (using the wink signal he learned from Detective Spooner.)

The character Dorian strikes me as more “synthetic human” than “android.”  His skin tone is human and his voice doesn’t sound mechanical or tinny like many robots do.  It sounds just like he’s flesh and blood.  He is able to smile and appear warm and friendly, reaching out to shake hands with Detective Kennex.

Part of one promo shows an android cop on the ground and out of commission.  Even before reading any reviews or synopses of this show this is my guess as to what this show is about, based on seeing the downed android cop:  Android partners for cops and detectives are less likely to survive dangerous encounters because they don’t have the emotions necessary for self-preservation (fear, for one) and the emotional connection to effectively protect his human partner when he is in danger (brotherhood, friendship, even love).  So, Dorian is an experimental version of the android cops, made to be more of a synthetic human, instead of a robotic and cold humanoid machine.  He may even be a prototype, and be observed by the authorities?  The synergy between the partners needs to be as close to fully human as possible.  So Detective Kennex is the guy with which they are going to try out this experiment.  Maybe this cop gets into a lot of trouble and gets his android partners killed often, and it costs the police facility loads of money.  Dorian may be an answer for saving money and creating more effective android or synthetic partners for the police.

I am curious to find out about Dorian’s origin.  I’ll have to watch Almost Human to find out, won’t I?  And along the way, I want to see how wrong or how right I am about my guesses as to what this show is actually about.  I’m excited about it!

Does anyone else have thoughts or feeling about this new show?  You may share them in the comments or email me through Blogger.

Watching TRANSFORMERS PRIME, even though I am an adult

About my favorite Autobot: Bumblebee

 

My favorite Transformer is Bumblebee.  It’s an adorable name for a Transformer robot.  I knew about Bumblebee for a while but I didn’t know much about his backstory or personality until watching Transformers Prime on the Hub.  He’s such a robot-y robot.  While the other Autobots can speak verbally, Bumblebee makes buzzing beep sounds.  This has to do with the loss of his voice box in the past.  I was like, awww, poor Bumblebee :’(  So I love him even more because after learning about that and listening to the buzz/beeps he makes for communication, I can tell how he’s feeling; curious, explanatory, angry,  annoyed, saddened.  And the other Autobots (and the humans who stay with them in their headquarters) understand exactly what he is saying, like Kenny from South Park!  His name also matches his color scheme on his armor.

     I’d like to think he is the kid brother of the Autobots.  He is sort of in the middle in terms of size (with leader Optimus Prime being the largest) but his personality makes him seem more kid-like.  As a matter of fact, he may even seem immature and defy authority, especially demonstrated in the two-part episode “Operation Bumblebee.”  The episode titled  “Operation Bumblebee”  features Bumblebee as a major character in that storyline.  If you want to read my summary of the episode, you may read on.

In the first part of the episode, Bumblebee’s T-Cog is stolen, and without the ability to transform into a vehicle, he is in danger of revealing the Autobots, so he is ordered to stay in the HQ.  But he feels useless and wants to make himself useful, even if it means trying to get his T-Cog back himself.  He has a strong spirit—a strong “spark”, as the Transformers call it—that shows his determination to reach his goal, whether it’s personal or for others.

I have not seen the entire series of Transformers Prime yet.  I only have caught a few episodes from season 2 for one week, but my sister immediately fell in love with the show and bought the DVDs of the first two seasons.  We are a little over half done with watching the first season.  I definitely look forward to watching them.

Transformers Prime is not just for kids; the storyline is sophisticated enough that adults can enjoy the show too.  There are interesting character relationships and complex storylines that I don't think children can appreciate as much as they watch it for the action. 

Please check this TV show out!  Season 3 is airing on the Hub now, but the DVDs of seasons 1 and 2 are each around $20 if you'd like to enjoy it anytime and watch it from the beginning.  There is commentary included with some episodes, too!

 

A Combat Robot Show on the SyFy Channel

I still need to see the movie Real Steel, but I am kind of excited about this new show.  It's titled, Robot Combat League.

For once, the SyFy network is actually airing a show that focuses on robots.  But it is not just any robot.  No.  It’s going to show combat robots.  Robots made for fighting.

Fighting for the entertainment of humans.

In a way, I kind of don’t like that idea at the same time.  I don’t like to see two robots try to destroy each other.  At least when humans do it in sports like boxing and wrestling, they don’t try to kill each other, and yes there will be injuries.  But do robots know when to quit the damage?  Maybe if they had some sort of “damage gauge” built into their visual sensors, they’d tell when the other one is losing and it’s time to stop fighting.

Mega Man X would not want to see this.

What helps me easily deal with this oil-shed is that the combat robots don’t really have faces.  They may have something on their heads that resemble eyes, or one eye, but that is all.  

I’m going to give this show another chance, but otherwise I’m not sure if I want to waste any more hours watching people waste awesome perfectly-built robots.  They would do best at a science show and be operated to “air-fight” so as to not damage the other robots. Why is the act of physically fighting so entertaining to us humans?  Is it because we don’t like to do it ourselves but it is rather fun to see other people—or robots—do it instead?  Has our violent culture gone too far?

On Seeing Tim Burton's “9”

I’m not a big fan of Tim Burton, but as a robot enthusiast, I am happy that I got a chance to catch the movie 9.  I was babysitting my cat, who was recovering from a surgery.  She went to sleep on her bed and I wanted to stay nearby, so I turned on the TV with the remote to find something to keep me awake.  There was nothing good on and a little after 11:30pm I turned to the SyFy channel (it should have stayed Sci-Fi, but whatever).  The movie was on and I looked at the TV grid, and it started at 11:30.  I thought to myself, why not, I only missed the first few minutes.  I’ll go ahead and see if I like it.

               And like it I did.  I noticed that the main character 9 was blinking his eyes and they didn’t look like organic eyes.  They were blinking like pair of robot eyes, if a robot could blink.  I thought to myself, Oh, this is neat!  So these guys are actually little robots with bean-bag bodies and goggles for eyes.  I could have guessed 9 was a puppet of a sort, but do puppets move on their own?

The story is a dark tale about a group of robot puppets that eventually band together to put a stop to an evil machine.  Yes, I said evil machine.  Machines can be evil if they are programmed to learn and do things such as fight in wars or cause destruction.  It is actually the programmer who is evil or greedy, not the machine or computer that is programmed.  Of course, there is always that “glitch” in the programming that would be possible.

So it turned out that these little robot puppets had a human soul put inside them that gave them life. I don’t want to give away how that happens, but why else would they have human-like emotions like compassion, anger, fear, and joy?  Especially compassion.   My heart cries happy tears when I see a robot comfort another robot for their sadness or loss.

Astroboy, Android Kikaider, 9—any Japanese anime, otherwise animated and live action movies that contain robot characters with souls and emotions—they are just so fascinating.   A robot with a soul is such an interesting idea to play with in fiction.

Carl’s Jr. Commercial Features a Robot Trying to Eat a Burger!!

As soon as I find this commercial on YouTube I am going to share it!

In fact I should find more commercials that feature robots as the focus character.

There is an extended version of this commercial on the YouTube channel "CarlsJr", so check that out too if you want (I've included the link below).  I at least want to share the version of the commercial that I saw originally on television.  I don't remember the extended version being shown on telelvision; if you get a chance to see it, you will probably know why.  Nevertheless, I love the commercials because the robot is so human, even though physically it is clearly a robot.  This robot can't eat, but it's frustration and anger is apparent.  Aww.

 
Here is the CarlsJr YouTube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/CarlsJr

Cute!! TASSIMO Brewbot Commercial

Well, to tell you the truth, I DON'T think this coffee machine is going to actually turn into a robot, but I saw this and it made the girly geek in me squeal with delight!

http://www.youtube.com/user/tassimobrewbot

Just above, I've included the YouTube channel where this video can be found.  The channel also has an official website for the Tassimo Brewbot so you can look up the things it can do for you and the things it "can get for you."  The TV ad definitely appealed to me because I go crazy about robot-related visuals and literature.