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Microduck

pollen-robotics.com

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Re: Microduck

#141

Post by yipinwong »

cs1996 wrote: post #6

this looks 100x better than Casio's https://www.casio.com/us/moflin/

The reason some people fine Moflin terriying is due to differences between the Western and Eastern face reading.

In Western cultures, "mouth" is how one perceives emotions, while in the Eastern cultures, it's the eyes.

e.g.

You see Disney characters got all big mouths, while say, Japanese ones like in anime or Hello Kitty has small or no mouth but BIG eyes.

Same for Microduck. It's got gigantic mouth, while Moflin has none.

---

As a personal preference, I like anime/manga characters but not fond of disney characters nor other Pixar characters. they look terrible to me.

Re: Microduck

#143

Post by skinfaxi »

numpad0 wrote: post #140

Two things that I always contemplate on whether to post this: 1) this can be a phone. 2) almost all of these except Sony ones got joint geometries completely "wrong" to be cutemaxxed toys. I'm not a Sony employee or anything, but theirs is whole next level even just sitting unpowered, compared to even some of other Japanese bots. Everyone making these cutebots should have one of any of Sony bots to study, even just a…

I think this version has a certain charm to it, reminiscent of Wall-E. I think avoiding the uncanny valley is better than trying to cutemax and failing.

Re: Microduck

#144

Post by tekchip »

I've tried a few small robot kits and every single one fails the moment it reaches even moderately deep carpet. Either the size of motion doesn't clear the carpet or the motors aren't strong enough to deal with it. The living room is a small robots sand trap. Couldn't help but notice precious little carpet in any of the promo material. What's the point of a robot buddy if you cant play with it in the living room?

Re: Microduck

#145

Post by hectdev »

bilater wrote: post #109
geoffmanning wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the horror of pulling animals out of their natural habitat, but if you are using this as a blanket statement towards all living animals then you should read up on the history of the domestication of wolves (dogs). It was born of a beneficial relationship to both humans and wolves and i personally find my relationship with my dogs to be extremely fulfilling and i believe my dogs do as well. I have no inte…

I know the history. We bred them to be our pets and normalized this relationship. Your pet might even love his life. But we can do the same with robot AIs, and it will be a better relationship. Your robot can talk to you. It can call 911 if you’re in trouble instead of just barking.

I'd argue that emotional co-regulation is born out of biological origins. Unless we are making synth, it would be a long time to match the relationship with a living creature.

Re: Microduck

#146

Post by rtkwe »

neom wrote: post #45
_joel wrote: post #22

It's either this or https://mondorobotics.com/ and I'm torn. Obviously it's for my daughter and I will just be safety checking, definitely, 100%.

MKBHD covered Beni the other day and it looks like a super super fun toy. Not sure about the educational value, but I was thinking about getting one for the kid in my life (me). https://youtu.be/mfmdXPT7nAM?t=592 (9:52)

My favorite bit from that was when he had it do a flip and the battery ejected from it's niche and it died. Also the constant suicide attempts from trying to run it on a table but that's a problem for any mobile robot and tabletop demos.

Re: Microduck

#149

Post by rtkwe »

_joel wrote: post #22

It's either this or https://mondorobotics.com/ and I'm torn. Obviously it's for my daughter and I will just be safety checking, definitely, 100%.

Boni seems more like a closed project and I'd rather have something where access isn't an afterthought as indicated on the Kickstarter.

> Right now, we simply haven't reached any conclusions regarding developer tools, documentation, or access. We haven't done the planning or the groundwork yet. Our current plan is to look into all of this after we've shipped the first batch and things settle down a bit.

Re: Microduck

#150

Post by sailfast »

Why not foster a dog instead?

I have enough things to take care of in my life through training and reinforcement learning, but if you don’t - this might be for you! :)

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