Students use robotics to design room that changes shape
Sydney: Combining machine learning and kinetic architecture, a team of computational design students in Australia have developed a unique origami-style meeting room that can learn human behaviour and change shape in response to the behaviour of people. The interactive Centaur Pod is set to adapt to external environmental and human stimuli by moving up and down and changing its shape, said Hank Haeusler, Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. “At the moment, a human can be in the same space as a robot and can interact in the space with the robot, but what we want to do is make space itself become the robot,” Haeusler said. “Thus when a person in a building moves, behaves or operates in any way, the ‘robot’ will sense this behaviour and starts learning from this behaviour and other people’s behaviour and will create knowledge from the behaviour and the knowledge will translate into the space to change,” he noted. The approximately six-to-nine square metre pavilion explores three main areas, machine learning and artificial intelligence; digital fabrication and robot fabrication; and augmented reality and virtual reality. This will profoundly change the way architects design, develop and manufacture in the future, the researchers said. “We try to push as much as possible the boundaries of conventional architecture and design, and explore what machine learning, biomimicry or creative robotics have to offer for spatial design to use this knowledge as seed to develop architectural design projects,” Haeusler said. “We’re looking at how digital fabrication and robot fabrication could shape the way we build buildings or structures,” he noted. The pavilion, being developed in collaboration with Arup — the engineering firm behind the Sydney Opera House — will be constructed next year. (PTI)
Man shaken after spotting ‘ghost’ of ‘Uncle Fester’ in photographs
NEW YORK: Jake Parr, 30, was shocked after seeing a ghost that resembled the fictional Addams Family character while exploring an underground bunker in Stockport, Greater Manchester, and was taking photographs of his experience. However, looking back at the photographs, Jake was shocked to find the pictures appeared haunted. Alongside seeing the face of ‘Uncle Fester’ in one of the bunker’s doors, Jake also claims he could see the face of a little girl at the bottom of the stairs. Despite being scared by the experience, Jake plans to return to the underground bunker to see what other paranormal experiences he can encounter. “When I was down there, it felt really creepy and almost as though someone was following us,” Jake said.”But it wasn’t until I looked back at the photographs that I realised how creepy it really was. I was shocked when I looked at the photographs of the ghost in the door, it looked like Uncle Fester, it was definitely an old bald man.Then I was even more surprised when I looked through the rest of the photographs and saw the ghost of the little girl on the stairs.” “It now all makes sense as to why it felt so creepy down there, it has to be haunted.” Despite having explored a number of supposedly haunted venues, Jake claims that this was one of the creepiest he had visited to date. He said: “This was one of the creepiest things I have ever come across on one of my explorations.I have even explored abandoned mental asylums where a lot of bad things have reportedly happened, and they didn’t compare to this.” “But even though it was horrifying, I would definitely return there. When we were down there, there was a lot of activity on the electronic voice phenomenon, which we use when we go ghost hunting.” “Hopefully one day I will be able to do a full paranormal investigation down there!” (Agencies)