strange radiation: the pool of radiance archive
Adventures with an unreliable narrator.
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Aug 15 05: Cat 2.0
The story of Elvis the roboticized cat went up on the indispensable BoingBoing today. Elvis Robokitty: the world’s first postfeline!
(“Elvis Robokitty” would also make a superlative band name.)
EDITED: The page BoingBoing sends people to is broken. It won’t actually show you the movie of the robocat. However, because I have mad google skillz, I have managed to dig up an actual link to the actual movie. Enjoy.
Commentary
I am having a hard time corroborating that this thing actually exists. It would be interesting (I’m a psychologist) because the cat would have to learn a whole new way of navigating the world, something I’m not sure could be done. Some rear legless animals can drag themselves around with their front paws, but for this to be “robotic,” implies an actual control module? Seems implausible, but possible. Do you have any original links showing the design?
posted by Dana Leighton, Aug 15 05 7:29 PM
Well, I can’t speak to the truth of the claim, but I have managed to find a working copy of the Quicktime movie in question. You may have noticed that the movie on the page BoingBoing talks about is broken. The file is still on the robotcombat.com server, though, and can be found here. I’ve watched it a couple of times and haven’t decided whether it’s for real or not. I want to believe. There are no designs posted, but the builder mentions a ‘two-button interface’ inside the box. The interface cannot be seen. There’s no way to be sure that there isn’t somebody just off-camera with a radio-control handset.
If you really want to find out more, I’d start by contacting Carlo Bertocchini and/or Team Biohazard in care of the Battlebots television program.
posted by Andrew, Aug 15 05 10:43 PM
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