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"I think a lot of kids whose mental growth outruns their maturity gravitate to science fiction."
- Dan Simmons

Vision Strip  
  A circular vision strip for robots.  

A strangely modern presentiment of machine vision.

Tiny and black, a mass of hanging arms and legs, the thing went gliding down the slope of a hill. Steffens saw it clearly for a full second, saw the dull ball of its head tilt upward as the ship came over, and then the hill was past.


(Robots from 'Orphans of the Void' by Michael Shaara)

A band of clear, plastic like stuff ran round the head—it would be the eye, a band of eye that saw all ways. On the top of the head was a single round spot of the plastic, and the rest was black metal, joined, he realized, with fantastic perfection. The angle of sight was now almost perpendicular. He could see very little of the branching arms of the trunk, but what had been on the screen was enough. They were the most perfect robots he had ever seen.

Technovelgy from Orphans of the Void, by Orville Shaara.
Published by Galaxy in 1952
Additional resources -

Compare to this very early reference to Computer Vision (Artificial Eye) from The Metal Giants (1925) by Edmond Hamilton.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Orphans of the Void
  More Ideas and Technology by Orville Shaara
  Tech news articles related to Orphans of the Void
  Tech news articles related to works by Orville Shaara

Vision Strip-related news articles:
  - Prosthetic Vision Device ala Star Trek

Articles related to Robotics
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Bipedal Robot Floats Gently While Walking
YES!! Remote Teleoperated Robots predicted by Technovelgy!
Will Robots Ever Fold Landry?

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Science Fiction in the News

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'If you're one of those rarities who haven't attended a rocket-polo "carnage", let me tell you it's a colorful affair.'

Will Space Stations Have Large Interior Spaces Again?
'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.'

Mornine Sales Robot
'Robot-salesmen were everywhere, gesturing...'

Bipedal Robot Floats Gently While Walking
'a walking balloon proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs...'

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'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...'

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'Most men updated their PIP on New Year's Day...'

YES!! Remote Teleoperated Robots predicted by Technovelgy!
'...a misshapen, many-tentacled thing about twice the size of a man.'

Will Robots Ever Fold Landry?
Where have you gone, Mrs. Robinson?

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