While delayed in the Denver airport last month, I discovered a large display of robots made of vintage tins, utensils, and knobs. They were the work of artist Mark Brown, who builds these comical, quizzical characters out of recycled and found materials. If we are ever exterminated by robot hordes, I hope they're this cute!
While the artist's website is rudimentary, you can find his work on the web, including at Uncommon Goods. The shop also carried a line of cute robot greeting cards for those (like me) who couldn't afford the $200 robot clocks; unfortunately I can't seem to find those on the web, but if you're in the Denver Airport, have a look around.
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There's been a lot of news about robots lately, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to synthesize what's going on in this field and offer a bit of speculation about where robotics is headed.
Kids love robots. I have a three-year-old friend who can identify the 1950s cult icon Robbie the Robot at 20 paces. My own son Jim could do an impressive multi-voiced impression of R2D2 by age five.