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"I realized there was a heavy-duty change coming in biology, and I could write a really compelling novel about catastrophic evolution, punctuated equilibrium."
- Greg Bear
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| Gesturing Robot | ||
| A robot that uses gestures to communicate. |
In "Strange Playfellow" (aka "Robbie") by Isaac Asimov (1940) robots have not advanced to the point where they can talk, instead they use gestures. There is an impractical "talking robot" for display.
| Robbie waited until she had caught her breath and then pulled gently at a lock of hair.
"You want something?" said Gloria, eyes wide in an apparently artless complexity that fooled her huge "nursemaid" not at all. He pulled the curl harder. "Oh, I know. You want a story." Robbie nodded rapidly. "Which one?" Robbie made a semi-circle in the air with one finger. The little girl protested, "Again? I've told you Cinderella a million times. Aren't you tired of it? -It's for babies." Another semi-circle. "Oh, well," Gloria composed herself, ran over the details of the tale in her mind (together with her own elaborations, of which she had several) and began... |
| Technovelgy from Robbie (Strange Playfellow),
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Super Science Stories in 1940 Additional resources -
|
Thanks to Winchell Chung (aka @nyrath) of Project Rho for contributing this item.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Robbie (Strange Playfellow)
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and Technology by Isaac Asimov
Tech news articles related to Robbie (Strange Playfellow)
Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov
Gesturing Robot-related
news articles:
- Robonaut 2 Uses American Sign Language (ASL) on ISS
| Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones |
| It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned! |
| Tactile Skin Supplier Map |
| Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo |
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'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
