Although Stanford University still hasn’t approved my most recent application (this one written in pencil), I refuse to believe that their entire campus is as lazy as the admissions department. Take for example their robotics lab and the latest invention to come rolling through its doors: a billy club-wielding JediBot, hellbent on exposing your most obvious sword fighting weaknesses.
JediBot uses (of course) a modified Microsoft Kinect motion sensor to help track its prey, then followed by a series of defensive and offensive saber attacks in an attempt to defeat an opponent. Through color recognition, JediBot can track the movement of an oncoming weapon, react to deflect the attack and then attempt to defend its own honor using an offensive swing.
So basically, Stanford University built a robot to keep my little nephew busy for months on end.
[via IEEE Spectrum]