Soccer Robots Compete in RoboCup 2009

The smartest autonomous robots in the world prepare for one of the most important robot competitions in the world, the World Cup of RoboCup.

Brilliant minds from all round the globe build soccer-playing-robots and compete in the RoboCup, to promote the development of artificial intelligence. This year, the weekend-long contest was held in the Austrian city of Graz and the protagonists tried to put on a show worth watching.

The Soccer World Cup for robots is not as young an event as you might think. It dates back to 1993 and, across the years, it took place in countries like Japan, Italy and USA. There are different league matches, from the standard to the smaller than 180 mm league.

In one of the leagues, teams use identical robots, and have the task of developing a software that can allow the machines to move autonomously. The dream of the developers is to one day create an entire team of autonomous robots that can defeat the human winners of the Soccer World Cup.

Photos by Reuters

via Telegraph.co.uk

Disturbing art

I don’t know about you but I get the heebee geebees just looking at this little girl. I don’t know what the author had in mind but a little girl in a bathtub full of blood isn’t my idea of artistic vision. Anyway some of you might enjoy them and, as they say, you never discuss taste! So here are some of the most disturbing images I’ve seen lately:

Chuckie’s friends

Now these are some dolls I wouldn’t recommend any parent to buy for his kids, unless they want them to become really twisted human beings. Come to think of it some of these puppets are even spookier than old Chucky, which in my opinion wasn’t really all that scary. These “toys” on the other hand are much more spookier, darker…scarier!

I wouldn’t be surprised if the person behind these abominations is also behind thedisturbing art I posted about not long ago. Anyway the guy clearly has issues!

Lego-made famous buildings

These little things can turn into impressive looking things.

Many might think that Lego bricks are only toys, but photos like these prove that in the hands of a talented person they can turn into true artwork.