After Linus Torvald's outright rejection of the third revision of the General Public License (GPL) last week, it appears that Alan Cox, the Linux kernel's unofficial number two man, remains open-minded, sticking by his wait-and-see approach to the revision which will be open to public discussion for most of 2006. Cox spoke recently with ZDNet UK, and his comments to them are similar to those he made in the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) thread that brought Linus's misgivings about the new version to […]

Lem over at Robots-Dreams.com, a great resource for robot enthusiasts and a site I frequent often for news and inspiration, managed to get Australian robot hacker Sean Jefferies, aka Sprocket2Cog, on the phone last week. The two spoke for 45 minutes about how Jefferies got his start in robotics and his work hacking, among other things, LEGO Mindstorms and Roboraptors. You may know of Sean's work and not even realize it. If you regularly read any of the tech blogs, you probably saw the […]

According to our Google Analytics reports, some of the people reading this post have actually been to Thunq.com before. If you have, you may have noticed some minor changes to the site over the past weekend. Specifically, the Thunq logo is finally done! Our graphic designers were given the low down about what Thunq was, and after several weeks of revisions, I must say that I am very pleased with the results. They were even able to pay homage to my favorite PPC Linux […]

Thankfully it seems that when one Japanese humanoid robot meets an untimely end it isn't too long until another appears on the scene to take its place. Qrio may be headed towards an early grave, but Gizmodo caught an AP article from last Friday describing the HRP-2 Promet, a new humanoid robot being developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Envisioned as a domestic helper, Promet is already able to control your TV with a remote control built into its […]

It appears as though the Purdue University study I reported on yesterday extolling the virtues of robot pets came too late to save everyone's favorite robo-puppy, the Sony Aibo, and apparently it's not the sole casualty of Sony's bottom line. While there has been no official announcement, careful inspection of Sony's 2005 3rd Quarter Earnings Announcement posted on their corporate site this morning reveals that they've killed the Aibo product line and will be ceasing development of Qrio. […]

Even though the first discussion draft of the third version of the General Public License is only a little over a week old, Linus Torvalds, father of the Linux kernel, has made it clear that the kernel source code will remain under GPLv2. The revelation came in a message Linus posted to a thread in the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) yesterday. In addition to clearing up some confusion about the language the kernel's license was originally published under, Torvalds succinctly and definitively summarized […]

PC Magazine has an article today about a study by the Centre for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University's veterinary school that has concluded that the benefits of having a robot pet are similar to those that come from real pets. It has long been known that human-pet interaction is good for maintaining physiological health and low stress levels. Children with pets usually have better social skills and are better learners than those without. Lead researcher Gail Melson has determined that a robot […]

In a press release today, Robotics Trends and IDG World Expo announced that the 2006 induction ceremonies for Carnegie Mellon University's Robot Hall of Fame will be held during the third annual RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition which will take place in Pittsburgh on June 20th and 21st. The ceremony will take place on the second day of the conference and will honor an array of robots from scientific, industrial, and entertainment robots to the fantasy robots of science fiction. The expo attendees range […]

It happens automatically and so quickly that most people probably never question the process of vision. Although it starts with the eyes, the majority of the work is performed in stages by cooperating layers of neural regions in the brain. As such, the underlying mechanism behind seeing and recognizing objects has long been of interest to neuroscientists. A team of researchers from The Johns Hopkins University's Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute have published a report in a recent issue of the journal Neuron describing the […]

The FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis announced today that they will be launching a new robotics research center focused on developing robot technology with everyday uses. The new research center, the first since the FedEx Institute opened in 2003, will be initially funded by FedEx Corporation with corporate and government sponsorships to hopefully follow. The center will be home to students, researchers, and faculty and will host public events in addition to the research and academic work. […]