DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
• hitchBOT may have taken a beating (it was apparently decapitated) but its cross-country hitchhiking expeditions may yet go on. Having successfully hitchhiked its way across several countries including Canada, Germany and The Netherlands (see our earlier post here), the robot was hitchhiking its way across the US when it was attacked in Philadelphia and damaged beyond repair. The attack came only two weeks after it had set out from Marblehead in Massachusetts with the aim of reaching the west coast of the US. The robot nonetheless lives on, commenting on its website, said that while its body was damaged “I live on back home”. The robot, which features a computerised brain as well as a torso made from a beer cooler bucket, foam swimming pool noodles for limbs, Wellington boots for feet and rubber gloves for hands, was created by a group of Canadian researchers exploring human-robot interaction and artificial intelligence technologies. With a bucket list of sites in the US still unseen, one can only hope it’ll one day look to complete its American adventure. “Sometimes bad things happen to good robots,” hitchBOT added.
• Looking for that extra spring when you leap out of bed in the morning? A British man has created a “high voltage ejector bed” which may be the ideal solution for those people who repeatedly sleep through alarms. Colin Furze, who said he drew inspiration from those great inventors Wallace and Gromit, posted a video on YouTube showing how the bed works (it’s since had more than three million views!). Not sure if it will ever go to market (though it’s certainly been a good publicity move for coffee company Taylors of Harrogate who Furze says asked him to make a wake-up device to match their ‘High Voltage coffee’.)
• A group of skydivers set a new world record as they joined together to form a giant flower – the largest ever vertical skydiving formation – and flew head down at speeds of up to 386kph. It took the group of 164 people – which reportedly included some Australians – 13 attempts to set the record over central Illinois. It was last set by a group of 138 in 2012.
