A core tenet of the human “fight or flight” response begs the question, is this guy bigger than me? A recent study suggests that answer depends on if he’s wielding or not. Turns out, our brains might give a subconscious size advantage to opponents if they’re holding a weapon.
A jail in the eastern city of Pohang plans to run a month-long trial with three of the automatons in March.
The machines will monitor inmates for abnormal behaviour. Researchers say they will help reduce the workload for other guards.
South Korea aims to be a world leader in robotics. Business leaders believe the field has the potential to become a major export industry.
The three 5ft-high (1.5m) robots involved in the prison trial have been developed by the Asian Forum for Corrections, a South Korean group of researchers who specialise in criminality and prison policies.
It said the robots move on four wheels and are equipped with cameras and other sensors that allow them to detect risky behaviour such as violence and suicide.
If Americans aren’t disturbed by phone carriers’ practices of handing over cell phone users’ personal data to law enforcement en masse–in many cases without a warrant–we might at least be interested to learn just how much that service is costing us in tax dollars: often hundreds or thousands per individual snooped.
Researchers believe that new “thinking caps“, could help provide super-human strength, highly enhanced concentration or thought-controlled weaponry.
CONSPIRAPORN! 