This is one of those stories that I simply HAD to share, mainly because its completely covered in awesome sauce! We have a story of a robot, throw in some cool GSM and GPS technology, it starts off in my home Province of Nova Scotia, ends in my current city, Victoria, B.C. and involves a robot.. how can it get any better??
Enter “Hitchbot”, the hitch hiking robot from Ontario that will start a coast to coast journey across Canada.
Hitchbot (Image Credit: CBC)
The robot will bum rides in his journey, this possible thanks to a moving arm (limb) that will enable him to signal for a ride. He’ll be equipped with a GPS and 3G wireless connectivity so he can post social media updates along his journey, keeping us all informed of where he is. Apparently Hitchbot might be game for people to even take him home to party, hang at a BBQ or just meet the family – if he consents! Some other cool features… The robot will have voice recognition and processing abilities that will allow it to make small talk with its voice. It will even be able to draw on Wikipedia for conversation topics. It will also have an LED screen so it can message humans using text, and can make some facial expressions. And it will be able to hold text conversations with multiple people at the same time over the internet.
This is simply down-right awesome… I only hope I can find him and give him a ride, perhaps when he gets off the ferry on Vancouver Island. You can follow Hitchbot’s journey on Instagram and Twitter, he’s user @hitchbot and he’s on facebook too!
Read more about Hitchbot on CBC news and on this official website at http://www.hitchbot.me/