I drove up to Chinatown on Sunday to take a look at the Indian Independence Day celebrations that were taking place there. Unfortunately they took place there on the Saturday, not on the Sunday; I’d got my dates wrong.
Chinatown was decidedly quiet.
So instead we whizzed off to Queensland University of Technology, otherwise known as QUT to check out their ‘Robotronica – The Robots Are Coming‘ event.
This, like the Indian Independence Day thing, was a free event, except this time I turned up on the right day. Robotronica took place over at the Science and Engineering Centre in the Gardens Point Precinct.
We weren’t quite sure where it was, but we knew it was near Brisbane’s Botanical Gardens in the CBD. We went in through the gardens main gate and walked down the path by the river. You can just about see Story Bridge in the background…
The bridge was behind the tree…
Then we walked along the path a bit…
Then we walked past the white wedding…
The Bride and Groom, the cameraman, and a guy eating a sandwich…
Until we eventually got to our destination and the University itself. I’d never seen these buildings before which isn’t surprising, I think this place only opened at the beginning of this year.
Impressive buildings in impressive surroundings, don’t you think? This was quite impressive too; they have the world’s largest digital interactive learning and display space and it’s called The Cube…
But what about the robots? Let’s take a look…
No, they are not robots, they are mainly people. This is a robot though, can you spot him?
His name is Geminoid HI-4. What worried me most about Gem, if it’s okay to call ‘him’ that, was that when somebody asked him if he would sing, he appeared to get embarrassed. A robot getting embarrassed?
That is scary.
There were other robots on show as well, but the queues to go and see them to have a chat were very long. One of the highlights of the day which took place in the evening was the largest swarm of flying robots ever seen in the southern hemisphere, all dancing in the sky.
We didn’t stay till dark, so we didn’t see it, but I’m sure it was very impressive. For me though, Queensland University of Technology was probably the most impressive thing I saw all day. If you are going to study technology, what better place to do it?
Anyway, I may have missed the Indian celebrations this weekend, but thanks to the wonder of the Internet I can bring you a glimpse of what went on there with my…
Best moves competition
The robots may be coming, but how do they compete with us humans? Are they ready to take over the world yet? In this competition, YOU decide. It’s…
Humanoid Vs. Mr Pawan
First up, it’s Humanoid (Robot)…
Now, Mr Pawan (Indian)…
Hmm, maybe I got too much sun the weekend.