magnapinna

he has elbows

pleo

while i'm thinking about dinosaurs and robots, now might be the time to share the #1 place on my wish-list.
it's pleo - a 1 week old robotic dinosaur whose sensory system of 40 "devices" enable sight, touch, and free movement - so says john frost on the disney blog.
pleo is incredible - the videos of him on the disney blog are adorable - and the coolest thing about him is that he can express emotions that he bases on his own life experiences.
he starts out as a baby camarasaurus, but then he develops a personality, mood and habits - he even has three stages of development (hatchling, infant and juvenile) and expresses a range of emotions from lively and playful to sad or confused.
it beats the hell out of a tomagachi and a furby, for sure.

robots

i seriously can't believe i missed this.
from july 30-august 3, 15 life sized "dinosaurs" took over madison square gardens,
including a t-rex, in an event bringing to life the bbc series walking with dinosaurs.
these guys look amazing.
this spring, i saw disney's lucky the dinosaur at the world science festival's street fair. lucky was a great robot, so lifelike, and it was great to see the way little kids reacted to a moving dinosaur.
but the bbc's dinosaurs were designed to be as realistic as possible - nothing like lucky - and with the exception of the human legs coming out the bottom of a few of them, from what i've heard the robots were incredible.
i'm so sad i didn't see it.
i love dinosaurs, and i really love robots.