When the robots rise, they'll likely come in the form of giant, goose-stepping cock roaches. Don't believe us? Just check the 32-inch, 44-pound Halluc II which features the ability to walk or roll via a simple rotation of its jointed appendages. This 8-legged vermin is powered by the screams of children and the Linux-beast within. When things get out of hand, you'll want to aim your slingshot at its 800MHz AMD Geode central processing unit and hope for the best. Now go ahead and click through for some video of it bewildered by the flashing camera lights in some makeshift, Japanese LSD lab. It's always a good idea to study your enemy before the big fight.

Continue reading The Halluc II: a robotic flashback of your creepy cockroach hallucinations

Rocobo perfects the "annoying robot" concept

Filed under: RobotsThe Roboco is a robot toy that seems to exist for no other purpose than to annoy flesh-based lifeforms, with its whole premise being to "react" to the owner's mood. For example, if you're angry and shout at it, it'll flap its wings and aggravate you even more: if you're nice and stroke it, it'll aggravate you again by "singing," or displaying a smile graphic -- let's just say at least it can't compose lullabies. At ￥1,130 (under $9) it won't exactly break the bank, but if you're just going to throw it out the window within five minutes of buying it, you might as well hold onto your bucks.

[Via TechDigest]

Robots To Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers

Vicissidude sends us to Wired for a look at a fruit-harvesting robot being developed in California. Its development has been funded entirely by agricultural associations, concerned by the uncertainty surrounding migrant immigrant labor. Quoting:
"As if the debate over immigration and guest worker programs wasn't complicated enough, now a couple of robots are rolling into the middle of it. Vision Robotics, a San Diego company, is working on a pair of robots that would trundle through orchards plucking oranges, apples or other fruit from the trees. In a few years, troops of these machines could perform the tedious and labor-intensive task of fruit picking that currently employs thousands of migrant workers each season."