Note: Lest ye be confused, this is actually a few years old. FYI.

I stumbled upon this via Del.icio.us. It’s a beautifully rendered short film with this premise:

 "What if we could build a system to help police in developing nations?"

The solution, presented in breathtaking realism, is the "Tetra Vaal Robot". You really will just have to see it to understand. It’s about a 16mb download, but definitely worth it. The folks at Analogik, who reviewed the video, say:

"OK, now we have really reached the point where it is impossible to tell the difference between the computer-generated material and the real footage. Talented people at The Embassy Visual Effects Inc. have created a magnificent piece directed by Neill Blomkamp."

 They also say, "After you see it once, replay the video and pay attention to some of the poses that the robot makes. Let us, for example, take a look at the robot holding the machine gun upright in a rather patronising and authoritative manner while patrolling the streets of Johannesburg."

Go check out the video now.

Oh man, I want one of these! Unveiled on September 18th at, "An exhibition of major achievements of the national 10th Five-Year program," The "Huitong" robot, "possesses functions including sense of sight, audio dialogue, sense of force and sense of balance. This humanoid robot with independent intellectual property realizes complicated human actions, such as Taijiquan (or shadowboxing) and saberplay."

Yeh buddy, "Saberplay." I can just picture an army of hundreds of these with swords coming after me. Apparently, the Chinese don’t want to be outdone by the Koreans and Japanese.


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