Les Automates Jaquet-Droz
"Réalisé principalement par Pierre Jaquet-Droz, l'Ecrivain est le plus compliqué des trois mécanismes. Assis devant un pupitre, l'automate tient une plume d'oie qu’il trempe dans l'encrier, puis il la secoue légèrement avant de commencer de dessiner les lettres sur le papier. Grâce à un mécanisme annexe, ses yeux suivent son travail. L'Ecrivain est capable de tracer un texte de 40 signes au maximum, répartis sur quatre lignes. La principale invention de son mécanisme est le système de programmation par disque, qui lui permet d'écrire des textes suivis sans intervention extérieure. Il est également possible de lui faire écrire n'importe quelle phrase, lettre par lettre."
(Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel)
[A robotic draftsman which is able to write through following a programmable sequence of letters.]
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Machines replace humans: heavy metal robot 3-piece
"I'm impressed with Compressorhead - the three-piece robot band (three and a half if you count the little robot who drives one of the cymbals). I went to their website to see if I could discern the origins of the project, DIY, corporate, academic, or whatever and couldn't really find anything on the makers. Then I tracked down the drummer. Stickboy was created by Robocross Machines and a whimsical roboticist named Frank Barnes. ... Reminds me of the Survival Research Labs robot machines, built for public performance and disturbance."
(Maxwell Schnurer, 5 January 2013, Life of refinement)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Women or androids?
"Oh, Playboy, why do you want your 'readers' to lust after androids? That's the only explanation we can think of for the proportions of your lovely ladybots. We culled the stats for every centerfold from December 1953 (Marilyn Monroe) to January 2009 (Dasha Astafieva), then calculated each woman's body-mass index.
A clear trend emerged: While real American women have steadily eaten their way up the BMI slope - just like American men - Playmates have gone from a sylphlike 19.4 to an anime-ideal 17.6."
(Katharine Gammon, 19.02.09)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
