This gadget reminds me of one of the killbots in that Crichton film, Runaway (though there have been a number of movies and fiction built around lethal nonanthromorphic machines).
Jeff
The Times: World News:Real RoboCop shatters Asimov rules for robots http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/08/31/timfgnfar02001.html
August 31 2000
FAR EAST
Real RoboCop shatters Asimov rules for robots
BY MARK HENDERSON, SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
THE rules proposed by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov to ensure that robots are used only for peaceful purposes have been shattered by the invention of a real RobopCop. A Thai scientist has devised an automaton that shoots intruders.
The Roboguard consists of a handgun mounted on a motorised arm, which aims the weapon using a small video camera, infrared sensors and a laser sight.
Asimov was so concerned about the possible creation of aggressive robots that in 1940 the Russian-born American writer proposed three laws of robotics designed to ensure that robots were designed for only peaceful purposes.
Pitikhate Sooraksa, of King Mongkut's Institute of Technology, in Ladkrabang, Bangkok, who invented the Roboguard, sees it as a cheap alternative to soldiers, police and security guards. He envisages the possibility of controlling it over the Internet.
Dr Sooraska hopes to develop his invention into the sort of automaton seen in the 1987 science fiction film RoboCop, which could pursue people on foot. Peter Weller played a policeman murdered by a street gang who is transformed into a half-human, half-mechanical detective.
There is already one disturbing echo of the film in Roboguard. It can be programmed to fire automatically as soon as a target is selected. In the film, police at first experiment with completely robotic crimefighting machines but find them too dangerous for practical use. One tells an innocent man testing it to drop his gun, with the command: "You have 20 seconds to comply." The weapon is dropped but the robot goes awry and shreds him in a hail of bullets.
The Roboguard prototype poses a limited immediate threat: it is fixed to the spot and is armed with nothing more dangerous than an airgun, which has been used in tests to take potshots at balloons. The technology, though, is likely to be adapted to create a mobile robot carrying heavier ordnance, Dr Sooraksa told New Scientist.
"It's very similar to a real gun," he said. "It could easily be upgraded to a more powerful weapon such as a machinegun. You could make it mobile, it could be designed as a walking system. We have the technology."
The robots could offer a cheap security option to private companies or could be developed for military or law enforcement use, Dr Sooraksa said. "We'd like to show it to the military. It should be in good hands."
He insisted that while the robot could be set to automatic fire mode, that was not a course of action to be encouraged. "We think the decision to fire should always be a human decision," he said. "Otherwise it could kill people."
The potential for automatons to turn on their human masters has haunted the imagination from Frankensteinthrough to the film Blade Runner, where humanoid robots known as replicants seek to infiltrate human society, and other science fiction films.
Dr Sooraksa's caution about his robot has not been enough to reassure other scientists that his invention was safe. "I find this quite horrific," said Chris Czarnecki, of the Centre for Computational Intelligence at De Montfort University in Leicester. "What about time delays across the Internet when it's busy? What you'll be seeing and what the gun's pointing at will be two different things. You could end up shooting anything."
Further problems could be caused by infrared targeting, he said. "What happens when the sun comes out? It's a big source of infrared radiation."
Other scientists said they were concerned that the Internet connection could be hacked into or that the robot could malfunction. "Things can always go wrong," Kevin Warwick, of Reading University, said. He suggested that scientists should consider developing Asimov's laws into a binding code.
Jeff
The Times: World News:Real RoboCop shatters Asimov rules for robots http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/08/31/timfgnfar02001.html
August 31 2000
FAR EAST
Real RoboCop shatters Asimov rules for robots
BY MARK HENDERSON, SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
THE rules proposed by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov to ensure that robots are used only for peaceful purposes have been shattered by the invention of a real RobopCop. A Thai scientist has devised an automaton that shoots intruders.
The Roboguard consists of a handgun mounted on a motorised arm, which aims the weapon using a small video camera, infrared sensors and a laser sight.
Asimov was so concerned about the possible creation of aggressive robots that in 1940 the Russian-born American writer proposed three laws of robotics designed to ensure that robots were designed for only peaceful purposes.
Pitikhate Sooraksa, of King Mongkut's Institute of Technology, in Ladkrabang, Bangkok, who invented the Roboguard, sees it as a cheap alternative to soldiers, police and security guards. He envisages the possibility of controlling it over the Internet.
Dr Sooraska hopes to develop his invention into the sort of automaton seen in the 1987 science fiction film RoboCop, which could pursue people on foot. Peter Weller played a policeman murdered by a street gang who is transformed into a half-human, half-mechanical detective.
There is already one disturbing echo of the film in Roboguard. It can be programmed to fire automatically as soon as a target is selected. In the film, police at first experiment with completely robotic crimefighting machines but find them too dangerous for practical use. One tells an innocent man testing it to drop his gun, with the command: "You have 20 seconds to comply." The weapon is dropped but the robot goes awry and shreds him in a hail of bullets.
The Roboguard prototype poses a limited immediate threat: it is fixed to the spot and is armed with nothing more dangerous than an airgun, which has been used in tests to take potshots at balloons. The technology, though, is likely to be adapted to create a mobile robot carrying heavier ordnance, Dr Sooraksa told New Scientist.
"It's very similar to a real gun," he said. "It could easily be upgraded to a more powerful weapon such as a machinegun. You could make it mobile, it could be designed as a walking system. We have the technology."
The robots could offer a cheap security option to private companies or could be developed for military or law enforcement use, Dr Sooraksa said. "We'd like to show it to the military. It should be in good hands."
He insisted that while the robot could be set to automatic fire mode, that was not a course of action to be encouraged. "We think the decision to fire should always be a human decision," he said. "Otherwise it could kill people."
The potential for automatons to turn on their human masters has haunted the imagination from Frankensteinthrough to the film Blade Runner, where humanoid robots known as replicants seek to infiltrate human society, and other science fiction films.
Dr Sooraksa's caution about his robot has not been enough to reassure other scientists that his invention was safe. "I find this quite horrific," said Chris Czarnecki, of the Centre for Computational Intelligence at De Montfort University in Leicester. "What about time delays across the Internet when it's busy? What you'll be seeing and what the gun's pointing at will be two different things. You could end up shooting anything."
Further problems could be caused by infrared targeting, he said. "What happens when the sun comes out? It's a big source of infrared radiation."
Other scientists said they were concerned that the Internet connection could be hacked into or that the robot could malfunction. "Things can always go wrong," Kevin Warwick, of Reading University, said. He suggested that scientists should consider developing Asimov's laws into a binding code.
