The day when robots take over all of mankind's most tedious chores has just got a little bit closer. The Pictor wall painting robot will climb walls all by itself and paint them using various science-fiction sounding techniques. It'll apparently use a "cleaning laser" to prepare the wall for painting, then use an "airless nozzle" to paint the wall - which apparently results in no "atomised spray". And apparently that is a good thing.

The top bod studying artificial intelligence and robotics believes that we could have robot security guards, autonomous police cars, and humanoid traffic wardens patrolling Britain's streets within the next 75 years.

Professor Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield has been studying the evolution of robots and how they'll be increasingly used in modern society.

Robots will have access to integrated databases of information on Brits' bank accounts, tax, vehicles, shopping history, criminal records, and even what they're doing. This would then allow them to identify who people are (accurately, hopefully).

It's a Star Wars wedding. Not just a cake grandma made that, from the right angle, looks a bit like a 2D Death Star, but a proper, CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY DID THAT? Star Wars wedding. Everyone put in some effort.

Here's a small celebratory montage we've put together of the finest photos. The highlight is the ginger man who grew his beard out to be Chewbacca, plus the grey-haired man who used his natural assets to do a superb Ben Kenobi. The T.I.E. Fighters let the side down a bit, mind. What's with the socks?

The entire set is, incredibly, viewable by the general public over on Flickr. We wanted to poke fun, but... it's sensational.

Although when they get divorced in three years time, the print outs of these novelty photos will be the first thing to go on the big fire in the garden, along with all of HIS STUPID TOYS.

(Via GF)

Wedding gifts: Battlestar Galactica toaster (for her) | R2-D2 webcam (for him)

It looks like a Teletubby that's had all its skin burned off in an industrial accident, but don't let that put you off - the Heart Robot is very friendly on the inside.

Designed by The University of the West of England's David McGoran, the robot likes a good cuddle. Its heart starts pounding when it's particularly excited, plus its eyes flutter when you touch it - and its puny limbs tense themselves for a smack round the head or a shove down the stairs when it hears raised voices.

EXPOSED! Some Canadian doctor who works out of Nova Scotia, has, so he says, been treating patients via a sensational "Robot Doctor" that helps him listen to his patients.

So what does this "Robot Doctor" actually do? It allows Dr Ivar Mendez to indulge in "real time" video communication with patients! Just like a £4.99 webcam. It also allows "real time" voice communication with patients! Just like a telephone. Or a Skype account. It's basically a PC case mod.

The robot, named I See You (ICU? Intensive Care Unit? Is this a doctor joke?), also trundles around hospitals via remote control, visiting patients' beds. So as well as being a glorified webcam it's also a glorified radio controlled car.

We have added Dr Ivar Mendez to our list of people who are not to be believed.

(Via OHG!)

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Poker-playing computer Polaris kicked the bottoms of several top poker players last week, raking in a profit of some $150,000 for its developers at the University of Alberta.

The human players, with frankly stupid names like Nick "stoxtrader" Grudzien, Matt "Hoss_TBF" Hawrilenko and IJay "doughnutz" Palansky, won two games, drew one and lost three to Polaris, which has significantly improved its poker skills since its shameful defeat to a team of carbon-based meat-bags in 2007.

Polaris, when picking up its trophy and cheque, said "NEXT STOP TOTAL OBLITERATION OF PATHETIC HUMAN INFESTATION."

(Via The Ars)

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Why buy some wussy, servile, beer-serving robot when you can get a black, evil menace who will dominate your living room? The Vstone Blackox stands at 440mm, weighs in at 2.5kg, with 20 movable axis points and some pretty cool moves.

He goes on sale in September at a hefty price of ¥798,000 (about £3,800). Better act fast though, with only 30 units available and 15 already on pre-order it's doubtful if he'll ever make it to a shelf. Drool-worthy action videos after the jump!

Two metres across. Six metal legs. A blank humanoid face with cold, unfeeling black eyes. Tubes. Pistons. If you've ever had a nightmare about a robot from the future tracking you down because of what your children will do several years from now, chances are it looked a bit like one of these.

The Stelarc creation uses ultrasound to minimise the embarrassment most robots face of bumping endlessly into walls, the "head" LCD screen rotates to look at any human in the vicinity, and it will, one day, be able to talk to you. If only to ask you to confirm your name before it blasts your brains out.

Quite nice, but not quite as impressive as BIG DOG. BIG DOG will CRUSH ALL.

(Via GW)

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An associate professor of digital arts at the University of Oregon has created a 22-foot tall giant polystyrene robot from old packing material.

Michael Salter spent months cutting up the bits and pieces for the Styrobot which will be touring art galleries all over the world on its quest for world domination along with its army of smaller friends.

Yes, yes and thrice yes. Surely the Mr Asahi robot barman is exactly what every busy city bar has been waiting for, or at least the frustrated customers anyway? No more would we have to wait for the barman to finish six different 10-minute cocktails before we can get poured our two-second pint.

One of modern life's great pleasures is cruising YouTube for odd videos of experimental technology. A lunatic on a rocket bike. An inventor with a death-wish positioning his head a few inches from a spinning rotor. A man risking carbon monoxide poisoning and all kinds of exotic death by using jet engines he bought off the Russian eBay in his garage.

And today, this - a twin-propeller, hand-launched spy helicopter drone thing you carry around with you in a tube until it requires deployment in a spying situation. Then you set it free like a dove of peace.

Maker Lite Machines was commissioned to come up with this disposable, self-steering spying "solution" by the US Navy. The spec sheet tells us it can fly for half an hour, which probably means it can really only fly for about 11 minutes.

(Via Wired)

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It looks like a Teletubby that's had all its skin burned off in an industrial accident, but don't let that put you off - the Heart Robot is very friendly on the inside.

Designed by The University of the West of England's David McGoran, the robot likes a good cuddle. Its heart starts pounding when it's particularly excited, plus its eyes flutter when you touch it - and its puny limbs tense themselves for a smack round the head or a shove down the stairs when it hears raised voices.

Forget snakes on a plane, for soon there could be snakes in your drains - robotic snakes, that is, which can climb vertical pipes, cleaning them or looking for leaks.

Norwegian scientists are working on a one-and-a-half metre long aluminium-clad robot is constructed with multiple joints, plastic wheels, and a camera, and is programmed with algorithms that tell it how to navigate pipework, and what tasks to carry out while in there.

Oh, for the good old days - when Sega ruled the console world with a black box and a blue hedgehog. These days, it seems to think robots are the future - and right now, the AMP robot.

It's a musical robot made in conjunction with Tiger, packing in two tweeters and mid-range speakers, four control motors, two motion-detection sensors, 49 LED lights, 14 touch sensors, 12W of output and connectivity for your MP3 player.

Which all adds up to a singing, dancing, flashing, moving robot,. On a big wheel. Expect it from November.

Sega (via Akihabara News)

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Genius. That's the only word to describe this, pure genius. I've a feeling it was more of a feat of fun and engineering to make a robotic band than a statement about the corporate produced, faceless pop groups constantly churned out by the majors but it still makes a bloody good point.

The micro-blogging service Twitter has been at the centre of many recent mods, including an awesome home automation system, however I doubt the previous hacks have been as dramatic as this.

You might know of Nabaztags, the Wi-Fi rabbits which translate your data (emails, RSS etc) into visual and audio alerts - taking inspiration from this product, the My Home 2.0 team outfitted an animatronic teddy bear with various chips and circuit boards, plus a Bluetooth audio adapter. The results are quite impressive, with the bear translating your friends' Twitter updates into spoken word - admittedly the spooky bear's voice can be described as nothing more than 'horrific'.

See the video below the jump for the full details.

Meet Pomi the robot penguin. Pomi is the latest robotic companion from the Korean state run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI). Pomi can see, hear, touch, make faces and also emit two different smells depending on its mood.

What these smells are is another question. Does it give off little penguin chuffs when it's nervous or bad breath when it's angry, and just what kind of smell does one emit when one is happy? The other thing is do you really want to be around an animal with a fish based diet when it's giving off gas?

Finally, a piece of SEGA hardware we can love almost as much as we loved Dreamcast - and this one is capable of loving us back.

It, or indeed, "she," is called EMA, which stands for Eternal Maiden Actualization. "Eternal" presumably means she's got fantastic battery life, "Maiden" is because she's got realistically proportioned breasts she's programmed to not mind you touching, and "Actualization" because, well, just look at the beauty!

Isn't she lovely? She apparently has a "kiss mode" that makes her willing and actually accepting of the advances of single males, the dirty little plastic whore, plus you can make her dance for you. She is the perfect woman, especially as she says "SEGA" on her somewhere underneath.

EMA will cost around £100 to import from Japan in a cardboard coffin when she arrives in Japan this September.

(Via Aki News)

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That absolutely hideous MONSTROSITY to the left there has been given the name Siasun and set to work as a receptionist in the Chinese city of Shenyang.

It/she works at the fantastically Communist-sounding "administrative examination and approval service center" in Shenyang, where it/she nods, waves and even, so it is alleged but we would have to see it to believe it, talks to businessmen in Chinese while assisting their search for important documents.

But what's the point in having a robot receptionist if it requires a team of people to supervise it, point it in the right direction, tell it what to do and stop it falling over and crushing small children? If you want a good receptionist, you have to go back to the 1970s and find a large-chested lady called Susan who brings you tea with a smile and smells nice. If this is the future of office help, count me out.

(Via Far East Gizmos)

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There's something a bit wrong about the Mask of Emotions; something altogether unsavory and I keep rolling it around my mind like I'm drinking milk that I'm beginning to suspect is off.

This LED labour-saving emotions device is a project by one of the students from the Digital Media Design department at Korea's Hongik University and aside the discomfort of wearing a silver goldfish bowl on your head, why would you want something to emote for you?

I don't want to disrespect the work put into this. It's really quite impressive and it looks good but a) I take it this is not for human use in the long term and b) aren't robots more sophisticated than this already? So, um, what's the application here? Tell me this isn't the future of human social interactions?