It’s been quite a year for humanoid robots, with all manner of increasingly advanced designs coming to our attention. The selections here focus more on physical movement than AI smarts, with the latter expected to come to the fore next year.
So many humanoid robots still walk as if they’re desperately looking for a bathroom. But Unitree’s H1 robot not only walks like a human, it runs like one, too. The impressive contraption proved itself at the first-ever World Humanoid Robot Olympics in August, picking up four gold medals, three silver, and four bronze in various track events.
The H1 robot won its first gold in the 1,500 meters, completing it in style in 6 minutes and 34 seconds (the world record is 3 minutes and 26 seconds). Hitting a top speed of 4.78 meters a second, the humanoid robot ran with ease and grace, its arms and legs moving in perfect sync to maintain balance, speed, and momentum.
At first glance, you might think that this video of a robotic head was generated by AI. It wasn’t. The work of Chinese firm AheadForm, the so-called Only Head is described as a “face robot” that’s been designed for research, interaction, and high-end displays.
Its movements are astonishingly lifelike, so much so that the footage will likely creep you out. The setup incorporates a complete facial actuation system with as many as 25 micro motors enabling lifelike expressions capable of portraying every human emotion. Only Head’s pupils incorporate cameras for visual perception, and built-in microphones and speakers enable real-time audio interaction.
One of the greatest challenges for engineers developing humanoid robots is achieving natural hand movements, with the fine movement and sensitivity of human fingers proving extremely hard to replicate. South Korean tech firm WIRobotics is having a good go at it, however, with its ALLEX (from “All EXperience”) humanoid robot demonstrating amazingly versatile finger movements.
Once perfected, you can imagine those hands — and the rest of the robot — being deployed on a production line, or even used for prosthetics. WI robotics says it’s also working with an AI startup to develop ALLEX’s AI smarts in a bid to make what could become a truly remarkable robot.
Unitree G1 has mastered more quirky skills 🤩
Unitree G1 has learned the “Anti-Gravity” mode: stability is greatly improved under any action sequence, and even if it falls, it can quickly get back up. pic.twitter.com/gDR0n0eIXl
Here’s another one from Unitree. This one is a bit smaller than the adult-sized H1 robot that did so well at the robot Olympics. The G1 has garnered attention for its amazing balance and ability to recover after being pushed over. The team behind it call it the “anti-gravity mode.”
In any robot uprising, you can imagine the G1 leading the way, with human fighters unable to quell the onslaught from waves of G1 robots who just won’t go down … though let’s hope it never comes to that.
For talented roboticists, this video will be a hard watch. It shows a new humanoid robot from Russia called AIDOL. Its creators unveiled AIDOL at a special event in November, but seconds after tottering onto the stage, the robot lost its balance and took a spectacular tumble.
In a desperate bid to preserve any last of strands of dignity, several assistants dashed out and tried to put a sheet over AIDOL, but that went wrong, too, as it became tangled and failed to cover up the robot. It meant we got to witness AIDOL being hauled off the stage — back to the workshop, we assume. Or a dumpster.
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.