Posted on 07/01/2008 9:31:30 AM PDT by null and void
U.S. researchers said they've created microscopic robots that can dance on a surface smaller than a pin head.
Computer scientist Bruce Donald of Duke University said the microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microrobots are almost 100 times smaller than any previous robotic designs of their kind, the university said in a release.
Videos produced by Donald's research team show two microrobots dancing to a Strauss waltz on a dance floor just 1 millimeter across.
"Our work constitutes the first implementation of an untethered, multi-microrobotic system," Donald's team said in a report presented during the Hilton Head Workshop on Solid State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems in South Carolina.
Not sure if this would warrant a robot uprising...since you could just step on the revolting toasters
They are so small there are NO photos of them.
Why microscopic when they could work on making Optimus Prime?
Just realized I replied to a pinhead ping. LOL.
MicroMachines from Galoob?
The eternal question ... how many of these robots can dance on the head of this pin?
Not if they crawl up your....
Here’s your photo ——>[ . ]<-—
Talkie Toaster Ping!
KRYTEN: I’ve just repaired the toaster, Sir. Well, I’ve nearly repaired the toaster.
LISTER: Oh NO, man! Dismantle him! You don’t know what the little bleeder’s like!
KRYTEN: Well, I’ve read all the documentation, Sir. He’s simply a talking alarm clock who provides his owner with early morning toast and light conversation.
LISTER: Not this one. This one’s mental!
KRYTEN: Sir?
LISTER: He’s defective. He wants everyone to eat toast ALL OF THE TIME. He’s obsessed with it. And if you don’t want to eat, like, four hundreds rounds of toast EVERY HOUR, he throws a major wobbly. That’s what caused the accident in the first place.
KRYTEN: What accident?
LISTER: The accident involving me, the toaster, the waste disposal and the fourteen pound lump-hammer.
KRYTEN: That explains why he was down in the garbage hold in three thousand separate pieces.
LISTER: Another thing. He always says “Howdy doodly do.” Drives you spare. I mean, what the smeg does “Howdy doodly do” mean?
KRYTEN: Well, just trust me, Sir. My motives will become clear.
He presses some more buttons on the keyboard. The TOASTER lights up and speaks. Its bread-lowering lever moves up and down as it speaks with its mid-Atlantic accent in an impossibly cheerful tone:
TOASTER: Howdy doodly do! How’s it going? I’m Talkie — Talkie Toaster, your chirpy breakfast companion. Talkie’s the name, toasting’s the game. Anyone like any toast?
LISTER: Look, _I_ don’t want any toast, and _he_ (indicating KRYTEN) doesn’t want any toast. In fact, no one around here wants any toast. Not now, not ever. NO TOAST.
TOASTER: How ‘bout a muffin?
LISTER: OR muffins! OR muffins! We don’t LIKE muffins around here! We want no muffins, no toast, no teacakes, no buns, baps, baguettes or bagels, no croissants, no crumpets, no pancakes, no potato cakes and no hot-cross buns and DEFINITELY no smegging flapjacks!
TOASTER: Aah, so you’re a waffle man!
LISTER: (to KRYTEN) See? You see what he’s like? He winds me up, man. There’s no reasoning with him.
KRYTEN: If you’ll allow me, Sir, as one mechanical to another. He’ll understand me. (Addressing the TOASTER as one would address an errant child) Now. Now, you listen here. You will not offer ANY grilled bread products to ANY member of the crew. If you do, you will be on the receiving end of a very large polo mallet.
TOASTER: Can I ask just one question?
KRYTEN: Of course.
TOASTER: Would anyone like any toast?
KRYTEN: Didn’t you HEAR what I just said?
TOASTER: Yes, but I thought you might have changed your mind in the meantime.
LISTER: You see? You see what he’s like?
KRYTEN: (Exasperated) We haven’t changed our mind!
LISTER: NO TOAST!
TOASTER: But I am a toaster. It is my /raison d’etre/. I toast, therefore I am. If you don’t want any toast, why did you repair me?
LISTER: Yeah, why did you repair him?
KRYTEN: He’s a guinea pig for a technique called “Intelligence Compression.” His AI chips were very badly damaged in the accident.
TOASTER: But that was no accident! That was first-degree toastercide!
LISTER: Just shut your grill!
LISTER elbows the toaster in the grill, hard. It says “Ow,” but nothing more.
Too cool Herbie!!!
At least these dancers from Duke won’t get your lacrosse team expelled.
If they're white, Nifong will try to indict them. At least he'd have video PROOF this time.
Do they DO the Robot?
Not if they crawl up your....
In your Gere???
Now if we could only make polar bears this small we could solve the problem of insufficient iceberg landmass... < /sarc >
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