ROBOTS DREAMS

Great Woot Deal on ROVIO Robot

Woot is currently featuring an incredibly sweet deal- the WowWee ROVIO mobile remote presence surveillance robot for just $99. The popular robot typically sells for around $250.

Just keep in mind that Woot deals of the day are just that - they only last for 24 hours unless they sell out of stock first.

Woot.com

[From the Robots Dreams iPhone]

A Day in Paris - the robot as tourist (Video)

Benoit Millot’s short video, “A Day in Paris” caught our attention at first because it features a delightful robot doing a lot of the things we love to do ourselves, like exploring the city, enjoying the flowers, playing in the sandbox like a kid, and speed skating on the road.

On second viewing we started to appreciate how well executed this video really is. The 3D computer graphics integration with actual footage is seamless with even the tinest shadow flawlessly matched. Our hat’s off to Benoit.

A day in PARIS from Benoit MILLOT on Vimeo.

Realisation / Benoit MILLOT // Images / Sebastien Jousse //
3D / Microbe studio // Production Tulipes & Cie //
Musique /Electric President "I'm Not The Lonely Son"//
Client//VINCI
www.lepotagerdesign.com
www.tulipes-cie.com
www.microbestudio.com
Tournage / Canon 7D // 3D Maya + Maxwell

By the way, the ‘real world’ footage was captured with a Canon 7D. Superb.

Pet Smile Camera Demo with Robot Dogs (Video)

Robots Dreams Vlog – 3/15/2010

Today’s video blog features robot dogs as photo models for the new FujiFilm Finepix Z700 digital camera. The camera’s “claim to fame” is that includes a new Pet Smile function allowing you to capture photos of your pets showing off their most beautiful, and cute, smiles.

We tried the Pet Smile function at the CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging show here last week, and can report that it works as advertised, at last when taking pictures of the numerous robot pets that were on display.

Bots High: A robot documentary in the works

Joey Daoud wrote in to tell us about his new project called “Bots High: Documentary on High School Combat Robots”. According to the project webpage,

“The film will follow a few different teams as they design and build their robot, and lead up to the National BattleBots Championship, where the teams' will battle with their robot to see if they built the best in the nation. Kind of like a science sports movie.

Beneath the surface of all the fun and excitement is major science and engineering learning at play. These are high school students building sophisticated robots and machining the parts themselves. Even more awesome is almost half of the teams in South Florida are all-girls teams.

The goal of the film is to be entertaining to all, yet motivating to kids and teenagers to see how fun and exciting match and science can be.”

If you’re interested in supporting the project, or donating to make it happen, then visit the Bots High Kickstarter webpage.

Sunday Evening In Akiba With GunPla (Video)

Late in the afternoon, just after sunset, we ended up over by the Yodabashi Akiba electronics super-store on the opposite side of the station from the well-known electronics district. Yodabashi Akiba is like a Fry’s Electronics store on steriods. Take the usual Fry’s, no, take seven or eight of them stacked on top of each other, and you’ll get a feeling for how massive the store is.

Just outside the store’s main entrance, there’s a small plaza that’s rented out to any electronics company that can pay enough to access the steady stream of geeks and otaku, along with salary workers and even young school children.

On this particular Sunday evening the space was going full swing with a marketing promotion designed to encourage people to collect Gundam items, especially "Pla" (plastic) Gundam models.

The term “GunPla” refers to Gundam models made from plastic.

All the focus on Gundam recently stems from the fact that it’s Gundam’s 30th anniversary. Companies in the “Pla Model” sector have bee hives of activity trying to pump out new Gundam designs and models so that they can capitalize on the aniversary before the party ends.