[Nettime-bold] New economy jobs

["cisler" <cisler@pobox.com>]

One of the high growth areas for jobs in the new economy is part of the old
economy: security guards. And now we have a new development from Thailand: armed
robot security guards controlled over the Internet!

Steve Cisler
----

Armed roboguard world's first

Web-run sentinel not thief-friendly

The world's first armed robot security guard that can open fire on intruders
while controlled through the Internet was unveiled in Bangkok yesterday.

It is one of five Thai-made hi-tech robots revealed by the Thailand Research
Fund.

Asst Prof Pitikhet Suraksa, of the King Mongkut Institute of Technology's Lat
Krabang campus, said his roboguard was developed from an unarmed "telerobot"
built in Australia in 1994.

"The robot is equipped with a camera and sensors that track movement and heat.
It is armed with a pistol that can be programmed to shoot automatically or wait
for a fire order delivered with a password from anywhere through the Internet,"
he said.

With further development the technology could be applied to building robot
guards for important places, including museums that house precious artifacts, he
said.

Other machines included a virtual reality system with a robotic arm, a force
sensor and head-mounted display.

Assoc Prof Chid Laowattana, of the Thon Buri campus, said this could be
developed into a simulator to train people in areas like surgery.

"It could memorise thousands of operations by veteran surgeons and simulate them
to train new doctors. Patients will no longer be objects of experimentation for
new doctors," he said. "It could also memorise Tiger Woods' strokes to train
golfers."The system was aimed only at teaching people how to use robots. Thai
researchers did not have the funds for a manufacturing base to compete with
countries like the US and Japan.

http://www.bangkokpost.net/170800/170800_News03.html


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