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A Florida man has been arrested after he posed as a Disney World employee and stole a $10,000 replica of the iconic Star Wars character R2-D2. ABC’s Central Florida affiliate WFTV reports David Emerson Proudfoot, 44, of Kissimmee, was arrested on May 31 after he snatched the droid from Disney World’s Swan Hotel in an attempt to get hired as a security guard at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. According to police, Proudfoot was seen by hotel security pushing a cart on the property while wearing an orange work vest and a Disney World name tag. Security guards,...

A Florida man with an application pending to Walt Disney World Security, stole an R2-D2 droid worth up to $10,000 and posed as a staff member because he wanted to show weaknesses in the security of the resorts so he could get a better paying job, sheriff’s deputies say. David Proudfoot, 44, of Kissimmee, remains in custody on a charge of grand theft and obstruction of information, according to an arrest affidavit. Bradford Betz Thu, June 30, 2022 at 7:21 PM A Florida man with an application pending to Walt Disney World Security, stole an R2-D2 droid worth up to...

In newly released footage it was revealed that Mystery Science Theater 3000 bots Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo auditioned for the part of BB-8 in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in this leaked footage. They may have been a little typecast.

Kenny Baker, the British actor who rose to fame by playing the robot R2-D2 in six “Star Wars” films, died on Saturday. He was 81. His death was confirmed by a spokeswoman for Lucasfilm, the company that created and produces the enormously popular “Star Wars” franchise. Mr. Baker was a little person whose adult height was widely reported to be 3 feet, 8 inches. He referred to his short stature as “my height difficulties” in an autobiographical sketch on his official website, but it would have been impossible for a taller man to play the role that made him famous....

It could be the last straw for hardcore fans angry at the long-running sci-fi saga's shift into space opera territory: R2D2, the diminutive robot star of the Star Wars films, has been spotted in a second Star Trek movie. C-3PO's canny little friend was first seen briefly in 2009's Star Trek, which saw director JJ Abrams deliver strong reviews and impressive box office by rebooting the series with an all-action approach plus an entirely new cast as the crew of the USS Enterprise. Now the website io9 has pointed out that the droid can be seen being sucked into space...

High definition, the final frontier. Where nerds can boldly go where no moviegoer has gone before. With the Blu-ray release of the "Star Trek" movie prequel, these brave fans can obsess over the film's tiny details, including whether or not a very famous robot had a cameo that nobody noticed.

Nikko R2–D2 DVD Projector Limited Edition. They’ve gone and updated the venerable R2–D2 home theater system and boy does it look cool. Check out the awesome video to set your saliva glands aglow. It now throws a 260 inch image onto your wall or screen, features 1800 lumens brightness and a whopping 1800:1 contrast ratio, and comes with the same gorgeously groovy stuff like iPod dock, memory card, USB drive and game console support and a built-in virtual surround 20W speaker system. The new model also features an FM transmitter out so you can beam sound to your Hi-Fi from anywhere in...

BRITISH soldiers in Iraq are to be protected by a supergun that can shoot down rockets and mortar bombs in mid-air, it emerged yesterday. The US-made gun, called Phalanx, was originally built for warships to target Exocet missiles. But the Army is secretly getting a truck-mounted version for use in Iraq. The £9million radar-guided system is fully automatic with radar that can detect incoming hostile fire within three seconds. It then pours out a stream of 20mm shells at the rate of 70 a second. There is no human operator or aimer inside the gun’s armour plating. The weapon is...

'Star Wars' Memories: A long time ago, in a Fourplex far far away ... http://www.parade.com/features/touchstones/070514-star-wars-memories.html http://tinyurl.com/yo8ocn TOUCHSTONES By Jim Gorant Published: May 14, 2007 It was a blazing day in June 1977 when my aunt and cousin came to visit. I was 10, my brother 8, our cousin 6, an awkward playgroup to start with, and to make it worse, our house in northern New Jersey was not air-conditioned. The adults encouraged us to play outside. We made a humid and soggy attempt at wiffleball, but it was no use. We were hot. They didn’t care. We were bored. They...

Thirty years ago, in theaters near and far, far away, a movie opened the imaginations of millions, combining the magic of mythology and special effects to launch the "Star Wars" phenomenon. A star of those films -- the brave little robot R2-D2 -- is about to take a turn collecting mail as the Postal Service and Lucasfilm Ltd. commemorate that movie launch. The post office is wrapping mail collection boxes in some 200 cities nationwide in a special covering to look like R2-D2. It's part of a promotion for a new stamp to be announced March 28, said Anita T....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Sony's decision to ditch its Aibo robotic dog, along with its entire robot development team, is a reminder that we are still a long way from the age of automated domestic servants. Architects of the Robot Age have been busy rethinking the future. In the 1980s you could hardly move for suggestions that the Robot Age was upon us. From Metal Mickey, the wisecracking, head-spinning star of his eponymous sitcom, to the stylishly choreographed Fiat advert in which the Italian carmaker smugly revealed how it had apparently dispensed with humans altogether...

A futuristic world, complete with autonomous household companions, android medics and even robot entertainers, will greet visitors to the Prototype Robot Exhibition in Japan from 9 June, 2005. The exhibition forms part of the World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan, which runs from 25 May to 25 September. Several utility robots, including autonomous garbage collectors, vacuum cleaners and security guards, are already patrolling the wider Expo. But the Prototype Robot Exhibition gives academics and commercial researchers a chance to showcase a more distant vision of robot utopia. The exhibition features a mock-ups of homes, streets and workplaces from the year...

Technology - Reuters Robot Invasion Puts People Out of Work, Thankfully Wed Feb 11, 2:56 PM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Eric Auchard SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - They do the jobs no one else wants to do, with an attention to detail that boggles the mind. Even so, no government or political party is putting up immigration barriers to keep them out -- at least not yet. This new breed of worker is a robot that goes about its tasks, well, automatically. And, for hundreds of thousands of U.S. consumers who own the Roomba robotic vacuum...

<p>DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- With her sparkling blue eyes, wispy eyelashes and demure smile, Hertz is the center of attention wherever she goes.</p> <p>If you're lucky enough to meet her, try to ignore the tangle of wires slinking from behind her face. If you speak with her, talk slowly and loudly. And no matter what you say, don't be offended if she looks at you blankly and repeatedly asks, "What did you say?"</p>

Cameras roll on final Star WarsBy MICHAEL OWEN-BROWN 30jun03THE republic is crumbling, the forces of evil are massing and a legion of science-fiction fans are quivering in anticipation. The last chapter of Star Wars starts filming today at Sydney's Fox Studios. Almost 1000 crew will work on the $173 million production, which stars about about 60 Australian actors. Fans can watch parts of the filming on webcam. The film, due for release in 2005, will focus on young Jedi warrior Anakin Skywalker being seduced by the dark side of the Force on his way to becoming Darth Vader. Also, Senator...