Tag: BOT

MyCyberTwin is an Australian social network that allows users to create their very own digital doppelgängers, capable of autonomously interacting and chatting with their friends. It may sound like a convenient way to avoid socializing online, but, before signing up, you should probably check out this lengthy analysis from Joanne McNeil at Tomorrow Museum. "It's not that a conversation ...

Apparently ignorant of the inevitable robot apocalypse, determined and lonely nerds persistently attempt to create friendly companion droids. Paul Hunkin, a Ph.D. student form New Zealand, has engineered an impressive software bot whose personable and generous capabilities far exceed those of other physical robotic companions, though. Hunkin's cyber-spawn, inspired by an xkcd webcomic, only ...

Yesterday, our pals over at Engadget reported on Ropid, the humanoid robot that proudly parades around, runs in place, and hops a quarter of its own height (video above). Today, more videos emerged of the little guy, and some of the Switched staff was torn. Some of us were horrified, especially after seeing earlier in the week the Army-produced, disembodied pair of legs that can run in place and ...

In another step towards self-awareness, researchers at University of California, San Diego have developed a robot that teaches itself facial expressions. The realistic Einstein bot formerly required individually programmed facial movements, but through a trial-and-error technique UCSD has dubbed 'body babble,' the AI experiments with its mug until it achieves a real expression. Linked to facial ...

There are plenty of malicious programs that can do plenty of nasty things to plenty of computers, but, far and away, the most common type of attack results in what is known as a zombie. A zombie is a hijacked computer that can be remote-controlled by the attacker and made to do his or her bidding. According to a recent study by security firm McAffee, there were 50-percent more zombie computers ...

The newest trend in Internet infection is growing at an alarming rate, according to Breach Security Lab's recently released Web Hacking Incidents Database (WHID) 2008 Annual Report. The attack is called an SQL injection and it works by corrupting the database layer of a Web site. This type of attack, once thought nearly obsolete due to the legwork required of the hacker, was resurrected when the ...

It looks like attempts to sneak across the border into Britain could soon become a battle of humans versus the machines, as the country's border guards have now recruited some robots normally used in warzones to help root out folks trying to smuggle themselves into the country. Developed by BAE Systems, the so-called "Hero" bots are equipped with searchlights and high-resolution video cameras ...

We always thought there was something off about a fat, red-faced guy, who gave kids gifts for just "being good," and took to sitting the good boys and girls on his lap. This week some other people started realizing that maybe good ol' Saint Nick has a few screws loose -- including those who tried to speak to Santa via his northpole@live.com address on MSN Messenger. It seems the Microsoft run ...