TECH BUZZ – The Femisapien (in Japan, known as E.M.A.) is designed to respond to kisses and sway her lady-like hips when she walks. She’s busty! And surprise, she’s being marketed mainly towards adults.

The Best Links:

1. Target Market: Lonely Adult Men
2. Also: She Can Fight!
3. E.M.A. (aka Femisapien) Offers Up Smooches
4. Programming Your Femisapien

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CULTURE BUZZ – A designer takes a look at the robot beneath all those cuddly stuffed animals. This is both scary and confirms my long-standing suspicion of all talking/moving stuffed animals. Don’t trust the robots!

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The Best Links:

1. Robots in Bears’ Clothing

MUSIC BUZZ – Self-playing robot musicians are the way of the future. They can rock, and then, as per their pre-programmed schemas, they can ruthlessly kill.

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The Best Links:

1. The Trons MySpace Page
2. Their Cover of “Clocks” is Super Awesome

FOOD BUZZ – Two of the best things in the world combined: cupcakes and robots. Never did you imagine you’d utter the phrase, “Save me the antenna!”

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The Best Links:

1. Eat. Me.
2. Geeks Like Cake, Too

BUSINESS BUZZ – The gizmo retail chain is going out of business, so you’re going to have to find another store whose merchandise mysteriously seems to have remained unchanged since 1989. Never has there been a better time to buy pointless garbage that resemble props from the set of Flight of the Navigator.

The Best Links:

1. Up to 40% Off Lightsabers, StressErasers and Breathalyzers
2. Now Men Will Have to Find Some Other Place to Play While Their Female Halves Are in Victoria’s Secret
3. Sharper Image(R) Store Closing Sale Now Underway at All Locations
4. Get the Shiatsu Foot Massager / Fish De-scaler / Clock-radio While the Gettin’s Good
5. Who Better Than Billy Crystal to Encapsulate the Aesthetic of The Sharper Image?

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TECH BUZZ – He brought us the Segway but also so much more: The Luke prosthetic arm is something way beyond those monkey robots. Kamen’s made a career of thinking differently. He revolutionized dialysis treatments, created a stair-climbing wheelchair, all before unleashing the Segway on the world. His newest project is a lightweight arm that’s fully customizable and lets the wearer pick up a grape and eat it. Kamen’s also working on a version controlled fully by the user’s thought, which can be read non-invasively using infrared.

The Best Links:

1. Dean Kamen’s Robotic “Luke” Arm
2. Dean Kamen’s Awesome Robot Arm Demo
3. DEKA’s Bionic Arm
4. “Holy shit, now he’s showing a video of a guy using the arm using only his MIND.”
5. Dean L. Kamen on Wikipedia
6. Welcome to DEKA, Kamen’s Engineering Company
7. Old But Thorough Bio of Kamen From Wired

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SCIENCE BUZZ – A monkey/robot hybrid! The end times are here. Two lab monkeys with brain implants have successfully learned to control robotic arms with only their minds (one shudders to think how their arms were originally lost).

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The Best Links:

1. Damn Dirty Apes Get Robot Limbs Before Us
2. “They were licking the marshmallow off the prosthetic gripper, pushing food into their mouth, as if it were their own hand.”
3. Brain-Controlled Robo-Arm Hope

MUSIC BUZZ – Honda’s adorable robot will conduct Yo-Yo Ma and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a rendition of “The Impossible Dream.” This only fuels our theory that Yo-Yo Ma is, in fact, a Cylon.

The Best Links:

1. Prepare For The Robomaestro
2. “The Irony of a Japanese Automaker Trotting Out an Advanced Robot in the Motor City Will Likely Be Lost On Most of the Attendees, Who Will Be Students from the Detroit School for the Arts.”
3. Robot to Conduct Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Bring Upon Us “Inevitable Apocalyptic War Against Machines”
4. Honda Is Also Forking Over $1M to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
5. ASIMO Vs. Slippery Stairs
6. ASIMO: TV STAR!

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TECH BUZZ – This year’s gathering in Germany showcases Artificial Intelligence designed to rescue humans and play soccer, among other less awesome things. Yes, it’s all very impressive, but get back to us when there’s a model that can brilliantly deliver dinner like a pro.

The Best Links:

1. RoboCup’s Official Site
2. “Robots Compete to Save Human Kind, With Time Left Over for a Kickabout”
3. 42 More Years Before Robots Can Bend It Like Beckham
4. Soccer Shmoccker…Check Out the Creepy Rescue Competition!
5. Don’t Fear Robots - They May Save Your Life! [In The Fuuuuture]
6. Photos from Last Year’s RoboCup in Atlanta
7. Browse The Schedule for This Year’s RoboCup in Germany

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TECH BUZZ – MIT’s emotive robot is mobile, dexterous, social, and thus kinda creepy. Nexi has a limited array of facial expressions to respond to certain situations, rolls around on a Segway-like set of wheels - she may already be working at your start-up company.

The Best Links:

1. The Nexi Overview
2. This May Send Chills Down Your Spine
3. MIT’s Nexi MDS Robot in Action
4. Please Be Friends With Me!

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