Emoti-bots turn household objects into mopey machines (video)

Some emotional robots dip deep into the dark recesses of the uncanny valley, where our threshold for human mimicry resides. Emoti-bots on the other hand, manage to skip the creepy human-like pitfalls of other emo-machines, instead employing household objects to ape the most pathetic of human emotions -- specifically dejection and insecurity. Sure it sounds sad, but the mechanized furniture designed by a pair of MFA students is actually quite clever. Using a hacked Roomba and an Arduino, the duo created a chair that reacts to your touch, and wanders aimlessly once you're rump has disembarked. They've also employed Nitinol wires, a DC motor, and a proximity sensor to make a lamp that seems to tire with use. We prefer our lamps to look on the sunny side of life, but for those of you who like your fixtures forlorn, the Emoti-bots are now on display at Parsons in New York and can be found moping about in the video after the break.

Emoti-bots

Sigma SD1 starts shipping in June for $9,700, has its sights set on medium format lovers

Sigma knows that $9,700 is a lot of money to pay for, well, anything, so it's couching the hefty price tag on its new flagship DSLR, the SD1, in the context of it competing against medium format digital cameras -- whose prices don't generally fall below five figures. Trouble is, as professionally inclined, well designed, and durably built as the SD1 may be, it still only packs a 15.3 megapixel CMOS sensor that spans 24mm x 16mm (or APS-C size). That means it'll have to earn its stripes on the battlefield of image quality, which it'll be ready to march onto in less than a month's time. Sigma promises to start shipping units in early June, so if you have the cash to spare (plus a little extra to fund a suitably awesome lens), you can start building up your anticipation today.

Sigma

Dell Streak Pro Honeycomb tablet pictured, likely to be with us in June

Android Honeycomb OS, 10-inch screen size with 1280 x 800 resolution, and NVIDIA's Tegra 2 (T20) chip on the inside. If those specs sound familiar, it's because most manufacturers already have a tablet just like Dell's upcoming Streak Pro. This slate from Round Rock got us a little hot under the collar recently, when it appeared it would ship with the T25 Tegra 2 silicon -- which runs at 1.2GHz and offers 3D support -- but nope, it's same old, same old from Michael and company. Still, the Streak Pro will apparently come will a brushed aluminum back, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB storage options, dual mics, dual cameras (2 megapixel on the front, 5 megapixel 'round back), and a choice of four colors: blue, pink, black, and red. If that's not enough customization for you, Dell's also adding its Stage UI atop Android, while support for AT&T's LTE network is also said to be under consideration. You can see some of the new tablet's accessories at the source link below, which also advises us to expect the Streak to go Pro in June, as previously anticipated.

Netbook News, SlashGear

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