Vortex’s VRAM Mobile Robot Platform (VMRP) machine can scale walls and look into your window. Aimed at law enforcement tasks, military missions, and perhaps a few sickos, this remote controlled gizmo can suction itself to vertical surfaces. Check the video at Ohgizmo.

Or, it would, if it were even remotely lifelike. The ETRI Kobie koala robot responds to a variety of tactile input, by moving its head, body, and legs. Not a great deal of info out there on this one, but it’s just cute enough to make the news. And, never fear, koala lovers, the koala isn’t actually exinct–yet.

Scientists at Royal Veterinary College in London used motion sensors on both Asian and African elephants to confirm that the beasts do, in fact, run. The conventional definition of running for humans and other animals is that all feet (two or four) leave the ground at the same time, and while this does not happen with elephants, their change in gait is significant enough to call them runners.

"It’s odd, at only around two metre/second (5mph) they shift from a walk to a run, which is the same absolute speed at which humans change gait, but relative to their size is much slower – for almost any animal," said Dr John Hutchinson, who did the work with Dr Lei Ren. "The neat thing is that this shift is imperceptible to human eyes; they don’t really change their motions markedly like a horse (or human) does. They just pass smoothly from a walk to a ‘run’." Link

Elephants used to be described as doing "Groucho running," in honor of Groucho Marx’s signature gait, and the scientists’ findings defy the long-held notion that pachyderms are too large and too stiff to run. The discovery holds promise for the diagnosis of arthritis and other bone afflictions in animals as well as providing a new model for robotics.

While I’m happy for the elephants to finally be bona fide runners, this is a tomato-tomahto issue; whether they are running or walking, you’ll still be squished.

Summit Products has come out with an ATM Machine for the home.  It’s called the YOUniverse ATM Machine.  Ok, so it’s not a new find, but this thing is still ahead of its time.  It can be wall-mounted, and can deliver cash faster than a trip to your local bank.  For less than the cost of an ATM withdrawal, it can be had on the web.  Sure it’s intended for kids, who need to learn the value of a dollar, but this thing looks cool.  It has its own ATM card, and you create your own personal PIN number, so that no one but you, can get to your hard earned cash. It even talks to you with a robotic sounding voice, and tells you what to do.  Maybe it is for the kids, but if they had this gadget around when I was a kid, I might have listened.

It may come as a surprise, or it might not, but the military has been steadily making use of robotic figures for especially dangerous missions. Some are operated by remote control and some directed by an appropriate operator, but all are quite capable of investigating potential ambush scenarios or removing explosive devices. And as the robots have no sense of fear, they would make for an excellent alternative to real soldiers when a situation is deemed too severe for an average human.

While the use of robotics might be too expensive, anything that will lessen the number of human casualties in the military seems like a good idea.

*Picture courtesy of Reuters.com*