Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #423

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Jeff Bezos Controls Giant Avatar-style Robot At TopSecret AmazonEvent
Without Obama, Once-booming Gun Industry Poised To Shrink
By Mark Molloy
Billionaire Jeff Bezos can now tick piloting a massive mechanical robot off of his bucket list.
The beaming tech- nology entrepreneur looked like he was enjoying himself while pictured con- trolling the futuristic robot suit at a top secret Amazon con- ference.
Bezos reportedly quipped “Why do I feel so much like Sigourney Weaver?” in reference to the exosuit the actress wore in James Cameron’s 1986 sci- fi classic Aliens.
He shared a photo of him wearing the Method-2 suit on Twitter, with the cap- tion: “I just got to pilot an awesome
(and huge) robot thanks to Hankook Mirae Technology. Nice! #MARS2017.”
Photos and clips of the humanoid robot, which is four- metres-tall (13-foot) and weighs 1.5 tons, first surfaced online last year, however sceptics have questioned the authenticity of footage released showing the robot walking.
Bezos was filmed controlling the robot’s arms in the latest footage; how- ever it was attached to some chains and was seemingly unable to actually walk around by itself.
The suit was creat- ed by robotics expert Vitaly Bulgarov, a veteran of science fiction
blockbusters, for the South Korean tech- nology company.
"Everything we have been learning so far on this robot can be applied to solve real-world prob- lems," the designer previously said on his Facebook page.
Bulgarov has previ- ously worked on film series such as Transformers, Robocop and Terminator.
Hankook Mirae’s specialises in build- ing robots to work in extreme hazardous areas where humans cannot go.
Method-2 is seen as a test-bed for vari- ous technologies that will allow the creators to build any type and size of robot in future.
The MARS confer- ence, or Machine Learning Automation, Robotics and Space Exploration, is an invite-only event sponsored by Amazon.
Last year's inaugural event was held at the Parker Palm Springs resort in California and attended by experts in the fields of artifi- cial intelligence, space exploration and robotics, Bloomberg reports.
There were semi- nars and demos on robotics and AI at the event, with invit- ed guests told: “Many great humans are attending (not to mention some extraordinary robots).”
By FoxNews.com
President Trump’s election appears to be negatively affect- ing gun sales in the U.S. and the bubble appears to be burst- ing despite a staunch advocate for gun rights in the White House and Republicans ruling Congress.
"President Obama was the best gun salesman the world
has ever seen," Karl Sorken, a production manager at Battle Rifle Co. in Houston. Sorken is an Army veteran and self- described liberal who voted for Obama and notes the change for the industry under Trump is a topic of conversation in the shop.
Fears of government limits on guns --
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