Catching fish just got a whole lot easier. Researchers at NYU-Poly’s Dynamical Systems Laboratory have found that schools of golden shiners have no problem letting robot fish take over leadership roles when it comes to schooling, as long as the bots don’t look (or act) in ways that strike the fish as, you know, fishy. Yeah, I went there. Professor Maurizio Porfiri and his colleagues figured out that the real fish decide whether or not to school based on visual cues as well as how the water is moving. If the conditions are right, the fish will look for a big, decisive fish to follow, and they don’t care at all if that fish is a robot. This particular robot fish uses ionic polymers that swell and shrink in response to electrical stimulation to power its tail, resulting in reliable, silent, lifelike motion. Researchers suggest that this technology could be used to steer schools of fish away from hydroelectric turbines. And, you know, that’s nice and all, but let’s think outside the tank for a minute… We now have the capability to use robots to control schools of fish. We have come to a point, as a society, where we can choose to use these powers for good, or for evil. Will fish robots lead schools of mackerel into out nets to feed humanity, or will they lead schools of piranhas into our swimming pools to kill us all? Either way, I smell a feature film. [ NYU-Poly ] VIA [ Futurity ] Thanks Dirk-Jan!

We posted about three different telepresence robots yesterday: the Anybots QB, the Willow Garage Texai, and the Vgo. Telepresence is great in concept, but as Erico Guizzo discussed a bit, it’s a strange combination of being somewhere and not being somewhere, and interactions with people are different in ways that range from subtle to drastic. Willow Garage has been using Texai in their office for quite a while; one of their employees, Dallas Goecker, ‘commutes’ daily from Indiana to California via Texai. So, they’ve been figuring out some of these social rules as they go, to the point where some things are now a part of the Texai communication software: Here are a few built-in bits of etiquette: Texai Rule #1: If you see me, I see you. Explanation: It’s about two-way communication. Implications: The cameras face forward because the screen faces forward. The pilots are only allowed to drive the Texai once they’ve shared their video stream. Texai Rule #2: Texai do not record audio or video. Explanation: It’s about face-to-face communication. More, after the jump. These are some generalized social rules that apply to the Texai: * When a pilot wants to get a local’s attention, they’ll hover by the office window or open doorway (initiating conversations). The extreme example of this is running into the doorway to “knock.” * When working from outside of the building, WGers will often sit their Texai at their real office desks because that’s where other people know to go find them. * When Dallas goes down the hallway, people often say hi to him; this has happened less so now that Texai is not a novelty, but it happens at about the same rates as when we say hi to each other in the building in person. * Dallas will turn […]