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Pipe Inspection Robot [video]

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31–38 of 38 posts

Re: Pipe Inspection Robot [video]

#32
post #30

Now that I've actually clicked it, I really want to know why this is in the top of HN. Like others have said, this is a generic, synthesized-voice video produced about something simple and not very innovative that looks like a dog toy that has been battered over years by a playful dog. Why is this on the front page?

We put it in the second-chance pool ( https://news.ycombinator.com/pool , explained at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308 ), so it got a random placement on the lower part of HN's front page. Perhaps we shouldn't have? The upvotes after that are all organic though.

Personally I think it's great for two reasons, the tech is actually cool and, it's an example of "weird instagram spam" that actually isn't. Thanks for giving it a second chance!

Re: Pipe Inspection Robot [video]

#34

Now that I've actually clicked it, I really want to know why this is in the top of HN. Like others have said, this is a generic, synthesized-voice video produced about something simple and not very innovative that looks like a dog toy that has been battered over years by a playful dog. Why is this on the front page?

Watched it without sound.. seems that removes a lot of this negative impression which I did not have at all.

Re: Pipe Inspection Robot [video]

#35
post #29

Lot of people understandably pissing on this. I did some research: Seems like Tadakuma Lab at Yamagata University in Japan have a group at their Uni helping them market their ideas to western audiences. If you dig in a little bit, it seems pretty legit, and the tech is interesting. They focus on novel mechanical movement systems for robots: https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Tadakuma-Laboratory-Riichir... // https://tw…

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Re: Pipe Inspection Robot [video]

#37
post #5

What's with this kind of "Technical Innovation" video? Synthesized voiceover, royalty-free upbeat stock music background, myriad of grammatical and factual errors, over-hypes a fairly simple device, clearly developed/produced outside of the U.S. but is targeting an English-speaking audience. I understand the "looking for funding" aspect of this, but if you can't get simple grammatical errors fixed, or honestly, if yo…

People watch it, so there's money to be made.

This isn't new either. There are plenty of TV channels that run 24/7 "documentaries" of similar quality.

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