Zigzaggery

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Category: Aside (page 2 of 3)

Colourful Fiddler Crab Claws

So, I have been given an excuse to source some photos of Fiddler Crabs, just because some students were surprised that the claws of Navi Robo were a different colour from the rest of its body.  Of course, these crabs are using their claws to send very different messages from the robot, but it is nonetheless of great importance that they attract attention, hence the large size and sometimes very bright colour of their signaling claw.

Just one example of a Fiddler Crab

A second example, with another colour of claw

A final example with yet another colour.

There, that’s enough wildlife for now, back to robots next time.

ASIMO meets Robbie – just for fun!

Given how much of my blog has been recently concerned with the trials and tribulations of thesis writing, I felt that a “Robot of the day” post was in order.  So who would you rate: ASIMO v Robbie?  You can see where I stand…

Robbie bins ASIMO

Not an academic analysis, but I feel probably the most likely result! 🙂

Visiting Montréal

It’s been a sunny day one to my visit to Montréal, so I made sure I spent plenty of time outside. Here is a view of the city from Parc du Mont-Royale:

Montreal

There were lots of squirrels in the park, mostly grey, but I also saw a couple of black ones:

Black squirrel Grey Squirrel

I’m sure the locals think of them as vermin, but I rather liked them and they made me nostalgic for the Northern Hemisphere.

I did sneak inside to visit the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal to see the Communicating Vessels: New Technologies and Contemporary Art exhibition.

There weren’t any moving robots here, although an artist called Jessica Field was showing an interactive installation where two “personalities” sense your movement and position and make comments about you as you stand in front of them. I’m going to visit Jessica at her studio tomorrow to see her latest work, which should be really interesting.

I couldn’t take a photo in the temporary exhibition space, but I did take one of a magnetic sculpture in the permanent collection:

Magnetic sculpture

Here’s a closeup of the “floating” weights:

Magnetic sculpture

After that, I made the most of the sunshine and explored Vieux-Montréal, although what most captured my camera-eye were some strange buildings across the water from Vieux-Port:

Strange buildings

Depending on what I see tomorrow this latest batch of travel writing may be replaced by the more usual robot-talk.

Meanwhile, here is a message for everyone I know in Perth:

Hearts at Montreal Musee des beaux-arts

Done

Back to the old (new-old it seems) theme, only this time I have to have a title image.

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