Gmail finally started rolling out its dark theme today, but other important stories of the day included a leak of Amazon’s new earbuds, changes to the Lyft app, and also the news that Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot is heading to some businesses.
Over a year after reports first emerged that Alphabet was going to sell Boston Dynamics, a deal has finally been announced. SoftBank will be acquiring the robotics company, though exact details of the transaction have not been revealed.
After being briefly shown off at an event early this month, the Alphabet-owned Boston Dynamics has officially revealed its latest creation, “Handle,” which the company’s founder previously described as “nightmare-inducing.”
Even though rumors are still flying around that Google’s parent company Alphabet is looking to offload Boston Dynamics, the company continues to show off new advancements in robotics. This time, Boston Dynamics is showing that it can go past just legs, showing off a new wheeled robot nicknamed ‘Handle.’
Boston Dynamics is still owned by Google/Alphabet as of today (as far as we know), and that means that the company’s latest developments are still relevant here at 9to5Google. That’s probably going to change soon, but for now, the latest creepy and unnerving robots that the company shows off in its videos are still attributable to the Mountain View company. The latest is a miniature version of its Spot robot with the addition of a giraffe-like neck. Yep, it’s not getting any less creepy…
According to a report from Tech Insider today, Google is nearing a deal with Toyota to sell its Boston Dynamics robotics division to the car maker. This follows a report from two months ago suggesting that Alphabet was planning to sell the division known for its super-creepy animal-like and human-like robots due to lack of a ‘marketable product’ in the next few years…
Before former Android head Andy Rubin left Google, he headed up Google’s robotics efforts. In 2013, Google acquired numerous companies and added 300 robotics engineers. The crown jewel was Boston Dynamics, already known for their animal- and human-like robots. However, Bloomberg is now reporting that Alphabet is selling Boston Dynamics.
Google’s Boston Dynamics company, the people behind previous terrifying yet amazing robot videos, has today shared a glimpse at what it is calling the “next generation” of its Atlas robot. The new generation of Atlas is designed to operate both indoors and outdoors, the company says, and weighs a solid 180 pounds.
Google introduced us to the holiday season last week with a humorous ad starring characters from The Simpsons, but now its robotics branch has given us a slightly more terrifying look at the future of this joyous time of year. Google’s Boston Dynamics robotics company has shared a video of a trio of robotic reindeer pulling a sleigh, and it’s grade A creepy.
Google-owned Boston Dynamics seems to have a fascination with building robotic animals, and today they’ve posted a video showing off their latest creation. It’s called “Spot” and it’s a smaller version of the four-legged robot “WildCat” that the group showed off last year.
While the technology is astounding, the robotic dog is definitely equally as disturbing. Its ability to walk so naturally like a real animal is amazing to say the least, but watching it do things like recover when being kicked over and climb stairs definitely puts it in “uncanny valley” territory.
Check out the video:
Google-owned robotics lab Boston Dynanics has debuted new video of its 6’2″ Atlas robot, also known as “Ian.” The hulking mass of metal, which weighs a whopping 330 lbs, has been programmed to recreate a key scene from the 1984 film The Karate Kid.
Ian is part of an ongoing robotics project that seeks to create automatons that can replace humans in hazardous roles like firefighting. Ian has already demonstrated a variety of abilities, including traversing difficult and uneven terrain, carrying objects such as firehoses, and even to get into a car and drive it. It can also use both its hands and feet to climb over the most treacherous obstacles.
Boston Dynamics’ LS3 aka Legged Squad Support Systems is starting to earn its stripes. The creepy rough terrain robot recently trotted through its first set of training exercises with the US Marine Corps. These simulated drills took place at a pretend combat zone in Hawaii, where the mechanical gear-hauling quadruped demonstrated its ability to maneuver through hostile land.
A team of eggheads at MIT are working with Boston Dynamics to develop next-generation shapeshifting robots built from simple materials like wax and foam. Not quite like Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat, these pliable contraptions possess the ability to squish into smalls spaces, while maintaining their durability. So don’t worry about these machines stealing your identity just yet. To change shape, these low-cost robots use embedded wiring to heat and contort specific parts of their waxy builds.
First they created self-driving (and maybe flying) cars. Then they created a new robotics division and put Android’s Andy Rubin in charge. And who could forget that they recently bought Boston Dynamics, the firm responsible for several DARPA-funded robotics projects?
Now, Re/code reports that Google is planning to purchase DeepMind, a London-based AI company that specializes in games and e-commerce algorithms. While Google could possibly put the company’s work on e-commerce to good use, Re/code indicates that Google is likely acquiring the firm for its talent, not so much for its technology. The site pegs the purchase price at round $400 million, but The Information says the number is actually closer to $500 million.
Just what does Google plan to do with all of these purchases? Some have previously speculated that the company is working on an intelligent delivery system to rival Amazon’s futuristic delivery drones. Andy Rubin has said that he has an interest in revolutionizing industries that have not yet been impacted by the precision of robotics technology, such as the assembly of electronics.
Or maybe they just want an army of terminators. But hey, who wouldn’t?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFrjrgBV8K0]
The New York Times reports that Google has just acquired Boston Dynamics, the robotics firm that created machines such as Petman (seen in the video above) and other mechanical terrors wonders that look as close to something out of the Terminator movies as we’ve seen yet.
https://twitter.com/arubin/status/411737161642168320
The buyout comes on the heels of the revelation that the company is planning a move into the robotics industry with Android co-creator Andy Rubin at the helm. Boston Dynamics’ resources and engineers will make an invaluable addition to Google’s growing collection of robotics experts.
