Kind of like Gundam, but tiny, unarmed, and with coffee
March 23, 2010 7:33 PM Subscribe
ok... I'll buy "a small robot appears to make coffee as the result of excessive editing and manipulation", but...
posted by HuronBob at 7:39 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by HuronBob at 7:39 PM on March 23, 2010
Man, when she finds out about Starbucks, she's gonna be pissed.
posted by zarq at 7:45 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by zarq at 7:45 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
> Not a robot, this is just stop motion, right? There's no way a plastic little robot is going to make that grinder turn so easily. And the movement is just too not-mechanical.
Nope, its more like a programmable robot that you can customize it's motion patterns on. So you have it do the coffee grinding motion, film, stop the film, plug it into a computer, have it do the water pouring motion, etc. If you watch at the very end the machine actually misses the cup and you see someone reach in to fix it.
So live action, single task, puppet video would be a more accurate description.
Kind of like these dancing things
posted by mrzarquon at 7:49 PM on March 23, 2010
Nope, its more like a programmable robot that you can customize it's motion patterns on. So you have it do the coffee grinding motion, film, stop the film, plug it into a computer, have it do the water pouring motion, etc. If you watch at the very end the machine actually misses the cup and you see someone reach in to fix it.
So live action, single task, puppet video would be a more accurate description.
Kind of like these dancing things
posted by mrzarquon at 7:49 PM on March 23, 2010
This just confirms my theory that in the near future life will be indistinguishable from a Miyazaki movie.
posted by eggplantplacebo at 8:10 PM on March 23, 2010 [7 favorites]
posted by eggplantplacebo at 8:10 PM on March 23, 2010 [7 favorites]
It's certainly clever as all get-out. Nicely done indeed.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:31 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:31 PM on March 23, 2010
I felt embarrassed to recognize the Tachikoma theme. But then, it works so well for the short. Oh, you puckish machine, no you're not people. And watch the coffee!
posted by FuManchu at 8:42 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by FuManchu at 8:42 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
...and this is why I don't let my small robots make me coffee.
It's so very kawaii until they spill on themselves, spit sparks, and burst into flames.
posted by markkraft at 8:43 PM on March 23, 2010
It's so very kawaii until they spill on themselves, spit sparks, and burst into flames.
posted by markkraft at 8:43 PM on March 23, 2010
Should have made Turkish coffee -- so much easier...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 8:44 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 8:44 PM on March 23, 2010
IT HAD HELP I CALL BS
posted by jimmythefish at 9:05 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by jimmythefish at 9:05 PM on March 23, 2010
This is the side of the singularity the sci-fi books don't seem to show enough of. Instead of all the superglue sex, uploading consciousness, and cyberspace BS, we really just need to learn to sit down and chill with the cuter robots.
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:13 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:13 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
YES PLEASE LITTLE ROBOT, AND BE QUICK ABOUT IT, THANK YOU.
posted by ErikaB at 9:35 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by ErikaB at 9:35 PM on March 23, 2010
I hate Anime and soccer playing robots, but that was kinda cool. Seeing it mess up at the end, let me retain a bit of my feeling of human superiority (at least until that things next firmware release :) )
BTW, mccarty.tim I guess I haven't been keeping up on my singularity sex practices, but wtf is "superglue sex"?
posted by DetonatedManiac at 9:36 PM on March 23, 2010
BTW, mccarty.tim I guess I haven't been keeping up on my singularity sex practices, but wtf is "superglue sex"?
posted by DetonatedManiac at 9:36 PM on March 23, 2010
On the one hand, very cute.
On the other hand, I kind of felt sorry for the li'l robot and all the manual labor just to grind it's master a cup of coffee.
And then I could kind of see why they finally rise up against us in 2041.
posted by darkstar at 9:37 PM on March 23, 2010
On the other hand, I kind of felt sorry for the li'l robot and all the manual labor just to grind it's master a cup of coffee.
And then I could kind of see why they finally rise up against us in 2041.
posted by darkstar at 9:37 PM on March 23, 2010
-oil Master's brain-
Yes you fucking slave driver, when I'm done with your fucking coffee. OKAY?
posted by Splunge at 9:58 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Yes you fucking slave driver, when I'm done with your fucking coffee. OKAY?
posted by Splunge at 9:58 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
I would probably play a flash game of just this, all that grinding/funneling/pouring is a pretty deft feat, and that robot is pretty cute
posted by Juicy Avenger at 12:02 AM on March 24, 2010
posted by Juicy Avenger at 12:02 AM on March 24, 2010
@DetonatedManiac
BTW, mccarty.tim I guess I haven't been keeping up on my singularity sex practices, but wtf is "superglue sex"?
It's a reference to Stross' Accelerando.
posted by ActualStackhouse at 12:25 AM on March 24, 2010
BTW, mccarty.tim I guess I haven't been keeping up on my singularity sex practices, but wtf is "superglue sex"?
It's a reference to Stross' Accelerando.
posted by ActualStackhouse at 12:25 AM on March 24, 2010
The little robot looks sort of grumpy about the whole thing. My favorite bit is lifting the drawer of ground-up coffee. The robot actually looks like it is pretending that the drawer is really heavy. Or it's just practicing workplace safety.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:22 AM on March 24, 2010
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:22 AM on March 24, 2010
That was nice. I'd hire that robot to make me coffee, if they could resolve the editing bit.
The music helped .
posted by From Bklyn at 1:37 AM on March 24, 2010
The music helped .
posted by From Bklyn at 1:37 AM on March 24, 2010
I thought that was super awesome. For me, the fact that the human has to help set up and move between each task didn't take away from how effectively and naturalistically it performed.
I imagine it's incredibly hard to get those movements working even occasionally, and the little touches like the head following what it was doing made me smile.
posted by lucidium at 4:01 AM on March 24, 2010
I imagine it's incredibly hard to get those movements working even occasionally, and the little touches like the head following what it was doing made me smile.
posted by lucidium at 4:01 AM on March 24, 2010
That's so sexist. I want an adorable little man pet robot to be my tiny identured barista. I will love him and pet him and squeeze him and never let him go.
posted by madred at 7:51 AM on March 24, 2010
posted by madred at 7:51 AM on March 24, 2010
That was great, but I would have liked it better with extremely epic music, something like Mahler 8, or terrifying music.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:55 AM on March 24, 2010
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:55 AM on March 24, 2010
>> Not a robot, this is just stop motion, right? There's no way a plastic little robot is going to make that grinder turn so easily. And the movement is just too not-mechanical.
> Nope, its more like a programmable robot that you can customize it's motion patterns on. So you have it do the coffee grinding motion, film, stop the film, plug it into a computer, have it do the water pouring motion, etc. If you watch at the very end the machine actually misses the cup and you see someone reach in to fix it.
That is exactly why this is so amazing. This makes me think of those videos of "amazing" robots developed by major universities slowly and awkwardly pouring water. Does it drive anyone else nuts how inefficient and laborious it is for them to do? I swear the motions this little robot is able to go through are the most advanced and fluid I've seen on any robot ever.
posted by brenton at 10:27 AM on March 24, 2010
I've been thinking about this robot off and on since yesterday. If it's possible to program a robot in this manner, wouldn't it be possible to program a more functional robot in the same way? For instance, for someone who is disabled couldn't you have a person complete a bunch of housekeeping tasks and record their movements, to then be programmed and executed by the robot? Is this technology being used in robotics for anything other than entertainment?
posted by madred at 11:00 AM on March 24, 2010
posted by madred at 11:00 AM on March 24, 2010
> If it's possible to program a robot in this manner, wouldn't it be possible to program a more functional robot in the same way?
Hypothetically. It's difficult.
Doing a simple task with a distinct beginning and ending is fairly simple. A series of simple tasks in a series (install the coffee filter, fill the grinder, grind coffee, boil water...) becomes a challenge: What if the coffee grinder was a couple centimeters to the left or right? The robot would spill a lot of grounds on the counter and mime grinding coffee for a while before brewing you a pot of unflavored water.
So you have to incorporate into the robot the precision it currently seems to have, plus the ability to compensate for errors in its surroundings: What to do if any object is moved, or if the robot's not starting from exactly the same spot. And then it has to accommodate changes in circumstances during the process: What to do if the water boils too slowly, or the pot boiled dry, or there's no more coffee, or the human gets in the way.
The net result is that even simple-seeming processes can have a lot of unintended consequences. The most successful domestic robot in the U.S. is a self-propelled vacuum cleaner, because vacuuming a floor thoroughly without bumping into randomly-placed things too hard is about the most complex task you can reliably get out of a mass-marketed product at the $300 price point.
posted by ardgedee at 11:40 AM on March 24, 2010
Hypothetically. It's difficult.
Doing a simple task with a distinct beginning and ending is fairly simple. A series of simple tasks in a series (install the coffee filter, fill the grinder, grind coffee, boil water...) becomes a challenge: What if the coffee grinder was a couple centimeters to the left or right? The robot would spill a lot of grounds on the counter and mime grinding coffee for a while before brewing you a pot of unflavored water.
So you have to incorporate into the robot the precision it currently seems to have, plus the ability to compensate for errors in its surroundings: What to do if any object is moved, or if the robot's not starting from exactly the same spot. And then it has to accommodate changes in circumstances during the process: What to do if the water boils too slowly, or the pot boiled dry, or there's no more coffee, or the human gets in the way.
The net result is that even simple-seeming processes can have a lot of unintended consequences. The most successful domestic robot in the U.S. is a self-propelled vacuum cleaner, because vacuuming a floor thoroughly without bumping into randomly-placed things too hard is about the most complex task you can reliably get out of a mass-marketed product at the $300 price point.
posted by ardgedee at 11:40 AM on March 24, 2010
Turns out that the real world is so chaotic that you gotta be thoroughly part of it to function in it. Having on-board smarts doesn't help much: you need smart joints and muscles. Still cute.
posted by fcummins at 3:24 PM on March 24, 2010
posted by fcummins at 3:24 PM on March 24, 2010
Sure its real. You can buy an iSobot for around $250 and do similiar things, like shooting an arrow or doing Tai Chi or dancing. Sure, its not as nice as the one in the video, but the technology is here and its almost affordable.
Can you tell I'm thinking of buying a robot?
posted by damn dirty ape at 5:37 PM on March 24, 2010
Can you tell I'm thinking of buying a robot?
posted by damn dirty ape at 5:37 PM on March 24, 2010
Jebus crackers, they've programmed a robot to fire arrows! The only thing that's missing is a pattern recognition algorithm that lets it recognize the silhouette of a human!
YOU FOOLS! THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS!!
posted by darkstar at 9:43 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
YOU FOOLS! THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS!!
posted by darkstar at 9:43 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
Its not snap motion, but rather an actual robot. More like an RC robot though, meaning without programming or AI. Cool video tho.
posted by bordensize at 7:28 AM on March 25, 2010
posted by bordensize at 7:28 AM on March 25, 2010
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