April 16, 2012

Robotic rings are spooky

by Dhiram Shah

Researchers at Japan’s Keio university have developed robotic rings that imitate eye and mouth movements.
“When you wear this robot on your hand, it forms a medium for communication using the hand. So the robot serves as a device for enhancing the animal-like, imitative ways that people use their hands.”
“The robot has electromagnetic motors in the eyes, which are controlled electrically. This bottom part contains a microcontroller to move the eyes, and a battery.”
At present, the robot is controlled using a special-purpose microcontroller and a PC. But future improvements should enable it to sense motion by the wearer and people nearby, so it can move automatically.

[Diginfo]