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Actor robots debut on Japanese stage
A new breed of acting robots is making its big debut on the Japanese stage. The play, premiered at Osaka University, is one of Japan's first robot-human theatre productions. Playwright Oriza Hirata says the work raises questions about the relationship between humanity and technology.
The play, called Hataraku Watashi (I, Worker), is set in the near future. It focuses on a young couple who own two housekeeping robots, one of which loses its motivation to work. In the play, the robot complains that it has been forced into boring and demeaning jobs and enters into a discussion with the humans about its role in their lives. The machines were specially programmed to speak lines with human actors and move around the stage with them.
The 3 foot tall Wakamaru robot is best known as a mechanical house-sitter and secretary. But soon they may be signing autographs or trying to run away from paparazzi!
Children extend their hands to touch the image of a manta ray projected from a Sony’s 4,096 x 2,160 pixel ultra-high resolution digital movie projector 4K SRX at the company’s showroom in Tokyo. (Pic: AFP)
‘Dinosaur eel’ armour to suit up soldiers of the future
An extraordinary fish that inhabits muddy pools in West Africa and whose lineage can be traced back 96 million years could be the model for light, bomb-proof body armour for the soldiers of the future. So say US scientists who have pored over the scales of Polypterus senegalus, also called the Senegal bichir or the dinosaur eel.
Long and skinny, the 40-cm predator has multiple layers of scales that first dissipate the energy of a strike, then protect against any penetration to the soft tissues below and finally limit any damage to the shield to the immediate area surrounding the assault. Experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used nano-scale measurements to look at several scales that were harmlessly removed from a living fish. They found the scales — about 500 millionths of a metre thick — have four layers. The team believe the scales’ protection is remarkably effective because of the different composite materials, the geometry and thickness of each of these layers.
