Jim Henson Robot from 1963.

Heater. · 2014-11-01 12:29

It's possible that this has just become the best robot creation I have ever seen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivJNNwTGDcw

Publison · 2014-11-01 13:25

That is a VERY good find! erco would be proud.

Jim was an innovator, but I didn't know it went back this far.

RIP Jim

erco · 2014-11-01 16:25

Friggin' fantastic, especially considering it's 51 years old!

GordonMcComb · 2014-11-01 17:28

It IS great, but you know it's a puppet, and not a "robot," per se. Still, it's all very clever.

At first, I wondered if Henson voiced the character, too. It's definitely him at the end, but the voice for the rest of the film is much lower. Seeing how this is AT&T, I wonder if they might have added some vocoder effects.

Jim Henson experimented with all sorts of ideas, well before his time. Example is this video from the very early 1960s, a now-famous "Art of Visual Thinking" skit. Henson does both voices (Kermit, Harry the Hipster, sounding a little Dr. Teeth).

Heater. · 2014-11-01 17:45

For sure this no more a robot than the robots from The Forbidden Planet, Lost In space, ... Star Wars..Terminator etc. They are all just theatrical effects.

My motivations for posting this was that it explored that long standing idea that "machines/computers are infallible" and, well hey, the H14 is so wacky we might like to build one.

According to the blurb on YouTube underneath the video the voice was not Henson.

erco · 2014-11-01 21:49

GordonMcComb wrote: »

It IS great, but you know it's a puppet, and not a "robot," per se.

"Robot" is a very misused word. Modern bomb disposal robots (and Battlebots and many telepresence robots) are just big remote controlled toys IMO. For some people, any humanoid/anthropomorphic machine is a robot. Some sticklers would call a smartphone or a heater thermostat a "robot". My 3D printing friends call their printers robots. I gravitate toward autonomous wireless mobile robots, but I'm in the minority. Hollywood reaches the masses, and whatever the masses think and vote into Wikipedia is "right".

So I still say that video shows a darned good "robot" for 1963. The 1960's-era robots in my collection do much less.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMOtGYprBRQ

GordonMcComb · 2014-11-02 09:59

Heater. wrote: »

According to the blurb on YouTube underneath the video the voice was not Henson.

It's clearly Jim Henson at the very end. Unmistakable. And while the main voice doesn't sound exactly like him, it has his mannerisms. Why I'm doubtful about the comment is that A) it's YouTube, and

Henson voiced his puppets. His voice is part of his performance. (There is also a slight sonovox-like quality to the voice, which made me wonder. Bell Labs created that, as they did the vocoder.)

I'm a big fan of the art-bot -- robots that are manually or electromechanically operated that exist solely because they are entertaining, or make us think about things. I think most robot creators were originally inspired more from fictional and show bots than from actual robots.

ctwardell · 2014-11-02 12:03

The man had incredible talent, too bad he was gone too soon, seems to work that way far too often.

Here is one of his videos that would be good to share with the kids on winter day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC440k6iByA&feature=player_detailpage

C.W.