Cheaply-purchased robots rebooted to dance in time to Jingle Bells?
Witchcraft!
Maybe not.
The machines are apparently “enhanced with intelligence” inserted by ‘boffins’ [led by Dr Emanuel Popovici and Dr Michele Magno (yes) of University College of Cork’s Electronic Engineering department.
Dr Popovoci and Dr Magno were inspired by the challenge laid down by Joanne O’Riordan at the UN to the scientific community to build better robots.
Tom McCarthy of UCC sez:
Due to the wide variety of disabilities, special customised interfaces are needed for each person based on their individual situation. The complexity of building such systems can vary according to the level of disability, and can become very expensive as a result. These factors can limit drastically the access to toys.
The team is working on developing [affordable] toys that will respond to a range of biosignals, like the movement of eyes or the slight tap of fingers, in collaboration with colleagues from France, Switzerland and Romania.
The ‘Intelligent Interfaces for Interacting with Toys’ (i3-Toys) project is composed of students from Electronics, Applied Psychology, Education, Computer Science and Medicine at UCC and include Fiona Edwards-Murphy, Alex Jaeger, Tadhg Lambe, Andrea Zagoneanu (Occupational Therapy) and Merissa Bradley.
The northwest is covered in snow,
While wintery winds start to blow,
Which sounds festive but,
Their power’s been cut,
And they’re facing a season of woe.
In the latest instalment of their Honest series, Screen Junkies ask an actual doctor to assess exactly how hard John McClane would have died in real life.
