Feb 08
For the interested, here’s a paper on Robot Vacuum Cleaner Personality and Behavior. Abstract: In this paper we report our study on the user experience of robot vacuum cleaner behavior. How do people want to experience this new type of cleaning appliance? Interviews were conducted to elicit a desired robot vacuum cleaner personality. With this knowledge in mind, …
Oct 18
I dislike installation art almost as much as I dislike artists. I do, however, make exceptions for things involving robots. Then I tell myself it’s not an installation at all but a future zoo exhibit that has been somehow dislocated in time. Neil Mendoza and Anthony Goh have made this easy for me by collaborating to …
Mar 24
“I rejoice that there are owls. Let them do the idiotic and maniacal hooting for men. It is a sound admirably suited to swamps and twilight woods which no day illustrates, suggesting a vast and underdeveloped nature which men have not recognized. They represent the stark twilight and unsatisfied thoughts which all [men] have.” –Henry …
Apr 22
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0C55PEcj5E] I was quite excited when Pleo the robot dinosaur was in the works. I planned to buy one, joined the mailing list and even filled out surveys. But then the company that produced them made a strange decision. They jumped up the price. Now Ugobe is bankrupt. Pleo was hyped as the first affordable, …
Dec 26
I have a teddy bear. His name is Barney and he wears a pink sweater. I’ve had the little fellow for as long as I can remember and, when I’m buried –after my body has been donated to necrophiliacs– I hope to be entombed with him. So I don’t see why the teddy bear needs …
Jan 31
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dneLQY6ZVk&rel=1] Dogs have a new enemy: Roboquad. This puppy is in an “epic battle of territorial domination” with his owner’s new toy. And he’s not the first. Probably won’t be the last. Dogs don’t share our chauvinism about mechanical life. They regard Roboquad as alive and as a threat. Roboquad passes the dog Turing Test. …
Dec 03
I bought a robot panda from the drug store. (Not the good robot panda. The little cheap robot panda.) It doesn’t really do anything. When you turn it on, its eyes glow green and it moves its arms around. Lay it on the ground and it crawls like a baby with a severe case of …
May 19
So I let my cat play with that mouse. You have to let a cat be a cat. He was just having too much fun. But when I woke up this morning – this is what I find. Dead mouse left on Rudy the Roomba. My roommate and I can’t decide whether the cat is …
Jan 05
While a lot of people have been wondering if they want a Ps3 or a Wii, I’ve been wondering if I want a Wii or Pleo. I’ve finally decided. It’s going to be Pleo. It’s not that I’m against the idea of standing in front of my television and flailing my arms like a madman …
Although Ryan Oakley began his career as a simple rake (drunk) he has since become Toronto’s most renowned flaneur (no car) and notorious dandy (overdresses). A misanthropic composer of psycho-geographical fictions (sci-fi), he is also a server of food, a tender of bar and a washer of dishes. While performing all these functions with efficiency and elegance (disdain and malice), he somehow finds the time to publicly criticize friends, strangers and cultural crap.
