Friday, March 16, 2012

Back from Innorobo 2012: and the winner is...

I'm back this afternoon from the second Innovation Robotic Summit in Lyon (14-16 march 2012). The spring weather was so beautiful and we had a very good time among many walking, talking, singing, dancing, wandering robots. There was many very interesting robots or exoskeleton (like Cyberdyne's HAL or Deloite's Hercule for the french Defense). I made a huge number of photos and videos of these robots, and I hope to be able to make some of them available on the web.
However, among all these big and small robots, my preference definitely goes to the iCub humanoid.  While most robots were presented, it must be said, in demo mode or remotely operated, the demonstration at the booth of the « Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia » was one of the few that was a true cognitive experiment. The iCub is the humanoid robot developed at IIT as part of the EU project RobotCub and subsequently adopted by more than 20 laboratories worldwide. The iCub platform has as its aim the replication of the physical and cognitive abilities of a 3 year and half old baby. This « baby » robot acts in a cognitive scenario, performing the tasks useful to learning, interacting with the environment and humans.
Thanks to all people of Innoecho (the organizer) with a special thank to Catherine Simon and Beryl Breas. See you next year! (March 20-22 2013).

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

NEW : Robot Erectus at Innorobo 2012

À l’occasion de INNOROBO 2012, Science-eBook a le plaisir d’annoncer la publication du nouveau livre de Jean-Claude Heudin intitulé « ROBOT ERECTUS – Une anthologie des nouvelles fantastiques à l’aube des robots ».
Bien avant leur apparition, les robots étaient déjà présents dans l’imaginaire des grands auteurs romantiques du XIXe siècle : Hoffmann, Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, Mérimée, Balzac, Poe.... Des statues vivantes au Golem, des hommes mécaniques au monstre de Frankenstein, des gynéides fatales aux robots universels, ces histoires ont érigé le robot en créature mythique.
Dans cet ouvrage de plus de 920 pages, Jean-Claude Heudin rassemble pour la première fois les textes intégraux des romans et nouvelles fantastiques qui remontent aux sources de la fascination mais aussi de la peur que les créatures artificielles nous inspirent. Il nous livre également les clés nécessaires pour replacer ces textes dans leur contexte historique et scientifique, celui d’un siècle où les découvertes vont changer le monde.

On the occasion of INNOROBO 2012, Science-eBook is pleased to announce the new book written by Jean-Claude Heudin entitled « ROBOT ERECTUS – An anthology of fantasy novels at the dawn of robots. »
Long before their appearance, robots were already present in the imagination of the great Romantic writers of the nineteenth century: Hoffmann, Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Mérimée, Balzac, Poe.... From Living Statues to the Golem, from Mechanical Men to Frankenstein's Monster, from Fatal gynéides to Universal Robots, these stories have made the robot a mythical creature.
In this book of over 920 pages, Jean-Claude Heudin brings together for the first time the full texts of novels and fantasy stories that go back to the sources of fascination and fear that artificial creatures inspire us. It also gives us the keys to replace these texts in their historical and scientific context, a century where discoveries have changed the world.

ROBOT ERECTUS
Une anthologie des nouvelles fantastiques à l’aube des robots
Jean-Claude Heudin
Science-eBook, Paris, Mars 2012
920 pages – 4,99 € TTC
ISBN-979-10-91245-00-5
Formats disponibles : ePUB, Kindle, PDF