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Pepper The Parrot's Bird Buggy
A "bird buggy" designed by the compassionate owner of an African grey parrot seems like an ideal way to get around, if your wings have been clipped.
(Pepper the Parrot's BirdBuggy)
Basically, this toy is a parrot perch on wheels, equipped with a joystick that allows its parrot driver to commandeer the contraption around the house and with a newspaper-sized deck to catch Pepper's occasional tokens of appreciation.Dubbed the "bird buggy" by Mr Gray, this robot is the most sophisticated toy that Pepper has received so far. It meets his goal by allowing him to follow his much larger and clumsier human family members around the house without fear of being trampled underfoot.
(Pepper the Parrot, astride the Bird Buggy)
Vernor Vinge wrote about a strange race in his 1992 novel A Fire Upon the Deep that also had technogeeks looking out for them:
Ravna looked across the surf. When the waves backed down the sand, she could see the Skroderiders' fronds peeping out of the spray... They sat in the surf, thinking thoughts that left no imprint on their minds...Then some unknown race had chanced upon the dreamers and decided to "help them out." Someone had put them on mobile platforms, the skrodes. With wheels they could move along the seashores, could reach and manipulate with their fronds and tendrils. With the skrode's mechanical short-term memory, they could learn fast enough that their new mobility would not kill them...
Via Guardian.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/8/2012)
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