boyfoot_bear - Slashdot User

Paro the Therapeutic Robot Baby Seal 52

Posted by samzenpus on Friday May 22, 2009 @07:47PM from the we're-gonna-need-a-bigger-club dept.

Mike writes "Paro is a therapeutic baby seal robot that is exploring new dimensions in animal therapy. Created to act as a companion for hospital patients and the elderly, the adorable baby harp seal bot aims to increase relaxation and decrease stress. Paro can sense and respond to its immediate environment through five integrated sensors that detect touch, light, sound, temperature, and posture, and it is even capable of learning and responding to a name."

Comment From the Dark Ages (Score 1) 718

by boyfoot_bear on Tuesday January 15, 2008 @03:23PM (#22055144) Attached to: What Was Your First Gaming Experience?

My first computer gaming experience was in High School (1970) on a field trip to Bell Labs. They showed us one computer that was running their home grown space war: 2 ships on the screen with thrust, rotate left/right, and fire buttons. The ships popped into space on each side of the screen and (if you didn't start thrusting) fell into the sun.

The Bell Labs guys said that this was not an actual project, just something they did for fun but they had a signup list to play at lunch that was a mile long.

I was already interested in computers but that clinched it.

What We Owe the Columbine RPG 66

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday March 13, 2007 @12:28PM from the games-as-art-as-games dept.

Gamaustra's Soapbox this week touches on the lessons learned from Slamgate and the Super Columbine Massacre RPG!. Author Patrick Dugan explores the ways in which SCMRPG challenged the media and gamers alike to think about what the medium of games is all about. Covered by everyone from Newsweek to Game Informer, it opened the eyes of non-gamers to the possibilities of the format and forced gamers to rethink their assumptions. "Game Informer's benchmark of game-specialized print journalism may very well inspire other major publications to follow suit with their own coverage, and in the capacity of Game Informer's readership, paints a symbol of solidarity. The twelve year old kid who thinks Gears of War is the best thing going can take a look at these graphics, popular before his birth, and get a sense that his beloved past-time is part of something greater, something he can defend to non-gamers as being inherently valuable." This issue is also explored in the final part of N'Gai Croal's interview with Jamil Moledina, which we talked about last week.

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