'WALL-E' robot grunt obeys military hand signals

American robo-profs have developed control software which will allow the droid ground-troops of tomorrow to be controlled by their fleshy comrades using standard military hand signals. You know in the movies, where the soldiers are creeping about on patrol and they raise a hand to halt the column or get it moving again? Now …

[Anonymous Coward]

Hand signals

Love to see the hand signal for "terminate the first born male child in every family".

Can hear the testers comments now..

hand signal... hand signal.. "ahh damn he's ripped the captains nads off again!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Should be ok if...

So long as the droid army's central computer can be shut down by a couple of Proton Torpedoes, we should all be fine...

[Eugene Goodrich]

Logical mistake

[[It would seem only a matter of time until more advanced concepts like "root out cowering meatsacks" or "terminate the first born male child in every family" can be conveyed.]]

The point of code signals is they separate the complexity of a concept being described from the difficulty in conveying it. If the robot can understand a lifted arm for "stop", it can understand a down-bent-arm for e.g. "fetch me six pints of ice-cold from across the street."

Paris, because the robot reminds me of her.

[Brian Miller]

Actual Army hand signals

I truly doubt that the unit follows the hand signals that are actually used. When I was in, the most frequently used hand signal wasn't in the manuals.

[robert cooke]

Good to see...

that the Reg is keeping us abreast of the RotM revolution. Can I have a new keyboard please, as this one is now full of coffee, i haven't laughed so much ion ages.

Thanks Reg!

[Anonymous Coward]

more like...

Johnny 5!

'Hey laser-lips, your mothers a snowblower'

[Christoph]

But what is the command signal for

EXTERMINATE

[Anonymous Coward]

First command ...

... would be "locate can of WD40", although I'm not sure what the hand gesture for that would be.

[Graham Marsden]

He's behiiiind you...!

... Oh no he isn't...!

[Eddy Ito]

It runs away?

It backs away when someone walks toward it, what kind of warrior bot is that? Then again it could be making sure the fleshy can't reach the 1/0 switch... Oh yeah, here's a hand gesture for ya!

[J]

..deja vu..

My wife uses the same hand signals with me when we go to the shopping mall ... now I know what they mean!

[John Smith]

"terminate the first born male child in every family"

Too Jewish

Mine's the one with a copy of Blazing Saddles in the pocket

[Lukin Brewer]

Like the ancestor of the sentry bots in Doom 3.

How soon before it is able to detect (and shoot) possessed marines? Or aliens masquerading as humans like in The Invaders or V? Or lizard overlords? Or Google Streetview cars? Or Kevin "Captain Cyborg" Warwick? Or vultures masquerading as humans like in the Register's editorial office? I think we should all be told. (I also think we should all get ready to duck!)

[Ross Bradley]

Hmmm... Chipped monkey brains

nah.. The real future is in bio-engineered cuttlefish... http://xkcd.com/520/

[Robin]

Get Help!

This thing would've been handy in the Father Ted episode where they get stuck in the women's lingerie department.

"Terminate all non-priests" or something.

[Erik Aamot]

this is primitive

come on .. this is footage from 1999 or there abouts .. a joke .. right ?

[Argus Tuft]

a female version

could be interesting........

[Paris for the obvious reasons]

[Anonymous Coward]

will it accept also signal by ...

... the enemy?

[TeeCee]

@Lukin Brewer

Doom 3 Sentrybots going after Google Streetview cars?

<popcorn>

<beer>

<sofa>

Roll film please.

A one-act comedy with added .30-cal slaughterfest action. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

[Colonel Panic]

Coming soon from Cyberdine Systems

What's the hand signal for "find Sara Connor" ?

[Paul]

So...

...what is the hand-signal for "Food riot in progress, approximately fifteen-hundred civilians. No weapons evident. Proceed with plan Alpha, eliminate anything moving."

[Dr Patrick J R Harkin]

Hand gestures in the battle field?

It's a command.

First syllable.

Little word.

A An And At - AT!

Second word - sounds like behind? Sounds like reverse? Sounds like back! SOUNDS LIKE BACK!

RACK, uh SACK, HACk, JACK , Tack - TACK! ATTACK!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Shouldn't . . .

. . . take them long to get it to understand the signals for 'come here' and 'come quickly' . . .

[Tim]

One problem....

If a marine can halt it by raising an arm, surely an insurgent can do the same?

Thumbs up because the fonz would want a robot like that!

[Bob Carter]

What about...

Now if they just add a rack for my golf clubs and they might have a winner.......

..then again how would it interpret my golf swing ?

[Rachel]

@Tim

Actually, this doesn't seem to be such a problem - if you watched the clip, you saw the robot follow a girl, then she walked into a room, but it didn't follow the man walking out of the room later. Maybe it can be programmed to respond to 'user x' and not anyone else? Or, for a more practical application in the field, anyone wearing the proper BDU's?