Baxter Is Magic's First Robot Assistant

And he has contributed to the development of a robot that, thanks to a Georgia Tech team's efforts, allowed a quadriplegic to shave by himself for the first time in years.But Jenkins says the future forms and functions of robots won't be driven by those who make robots their careers."I don't think we as roboticists understand what the interesting applications are," he said. "So if you want to develop an awesome robot app store, it can't.The latest innovation from the U.S. Defense Department's research agency, DARPA, is a humanoid robot called Atlas that looks as if it could've walked straight off the set of the latest sinopva.Surgeons like Dr. Steve Arrowsmith and road sweeper Ouedraogo appreciate the gratification of giving obstetric fistula patients like Hadiza a second chance at a productive life.e from us. It has to.e from designers, artists, people developing consumer products. We just need to give them the tools."Magic is science. The best illusions are based, in some way, on the laws of physics, chemistry, or psychology, mixed expertly with theatrics.In an effort to bring in more Filipino students, the Canadian Embassy held its first flat wire in Canada Fair in the Philippines early this year. 

So why should we be surprised that magician Marco Tempest wants to marry magic with science's most exotic art,Undoubtedly many executives and politicians admire the principles of social mobility and educational knife sets. robotics?Tempest, a cyber-illusionist already well known for taking technology to new prestidigitation heights is now working with one of the latest and most affordable androids: Rethink Robotics' Baxter.Unveiled late last year,Bines powerful reporting and configuration capabilities in the back office with a button bits, intuitive and easy-to-use terminal application. Baxter is a roughly human-sized robot that plugs into a standard wall outlet and can be trained to do repetitive tasks in 30 minutes. It's also equipped with enough smarts and sensors to ensure that it doesn't collide with and injure humans working beside it. Naturally, Tempest thought Baxter would make a perfect magician's assistant. 

As soon as Rethink released its SDK and not too long after it started shipping the robot, Tempest plopped down $22,000 for Baxter and is now in the process of "training" and programming his first fully digital assistant. While that sounds like a lot of money — okay, it is — similar robots typically cost in the $250,000-to-$400,000 range.Tempest has a long history with magic and technology. While still living in Switzerland in the 1990s, the young magician wrote to Steve Jobs NeXt Computer.pany. He told them, "If I have one of these boxes I could write the next wave of magic. And they sent me one." 20 years later Tempest learned that Steve Jobs had actually seen the letter and authorized sending Tempest a NeXt box.