Am I that wasted, or did that really happen?

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/robot-chair-that-re...

There is no God.

The chair legs are in a diferent positon from when it falls to when it starts to construct itself all over again. I see it just a roomba/gps/strap thing.

I thought that looked familiar.

I just about to post that this had been up before... only because bacj in April submitting this is what got me an invite to be a poster....

iggimargi, what is the significance that the legs are in a different position? Do you think it is remote controlled or can actually tell where the legs, etc. are? Either way, I had to watch it twice out of amazement.

What is the point of this? Yes, it's cool, but who wants a chair that falls apart? "Dude, why did you buy a chair that breaks?" "Duh, so it can put itself back together."

Ah! A chair that puts itself back together. How novel. Now all we need is a table that can rebuild itself once broken, which would go great with this. Or maybe even couch that can reconstruct itself into various configurations once it has been torn asunder...

And it would also be nice to have somthing like a semblance of a soul that can reassemble itself after being shattered and destroyed by the fact that your girlfriend left you because she just didn't grasp the importance of your "Chair that becomes a chair" invention that you are certain will "change the world."

"Its the next Segway, I tell you!"

Is it just me or at 1:09 does the leg just suddenly get bigger?

I want poo.

Taxpayer research dollars well spent!

Would it only work if the seat and chairback fell right side up?

What a *CENSORED* waste... That thing probably can't hold up 10lbs and it's slow as *CENSORED* You'd get more uses using it as a weapon or better yet fire*CENSORED*wood..

not really taxpayer dollars, Cornell is a private school..

But speaking of taxpayer dollars, it'd be fun to see a taxman sit on this chair.

now if only they could get a PC to fix itself that quickly fnar fnar

Cool stuff....only if it is really fast..it would be like magic and good michief kit. Should come with a free first aid kit.:)

they just need to program it so it puts itself away into a closet and comes out via vocal commands.

mmm laziness.

its an art peice, thats the point.

yeah, I have to agree with that other poster. This is a complete waste, unless they have some other idea they are working towards and this is just a stepping stone. But yeah, this looks like a huge waste of time and resources to me. And dammit... why arent they working on real transformers??? I was hoping to see something that really did put Megatron to shame!!!!

God, I love Final Cut. Don't you?

Reminds me of The Iron Giant at the end of the film.

It's interesting to me that the folks at Gizmodo find this cool enough to post, but that many comments say "no purpose", "what a waste", etc.

I find that when confronted with something like this there are two kinds of people: those that ask "Yeah, but what good is it?" and those that say, "Cool, I wonder what I could do with that?"

It's the second type that goes on to make a bazillion dollars by applying the technology to an appropriate problem. The trick is to find that appropriate problem and then to pursue it. It's unwise to deride an invention or gadget just because you don't see any possible application for it -- you may be asking the wrong questions.

People don't see the advantages of self-assembly? Ok, maybe not for a chair, but think of those huge cranes at construction sites. There's a building going up near my apartment and it took them a solid week to put together this crane. If it could do it autonomously that would save time and prevent a lot of accidents.

Well said, Gunnk. Some folks see an interesting use of robotic technology, others see a chair they can't sit on.

I agree with gunnk as well. Just because the technology is currently used with a chair doesn't mean it can't be applied for other uses.

I've always wanted to see the personification of Down's syndrome in a chair.

Just imagine if this sort of technology was applied to the recent beer-pouring robots! You could drink as much as you want, get angry, and smash the robot in your drunken rage.

Once you passed out, it would be able to repair itself in time to have some hair of the dog ready for you in the morning.

Wow. This has some wild implications for the future if taken to that next level, beyond the MIT nerd house.

Can't something just be cool? O thought that was pretty darn neat. I like where robotics has been going lately, can't wait to see where it goes.

I second The Iron Giant memory trigger this caused.

This chair will save the WWF millions.

2 parts...

1st. I must rebut iggimarco's comment of the legs moved before it reconstructed. I disagree... It is a completely different camera angle and they still look to be in the same relative positions. I see no outside interference. I'm sure some of the legs got slightly moved by the machine itself as it swung all over...

2nd. Now some ask what is the potential. I can imagine hours of fun of friends coming over playing a game and beating me or making a fool of them self, and me being able to say a keyphrase (if this is infact a trigger if not it could be). It would be such a good laugh *Until someone looses an eye or leg or something...*

Kudos to the brilliant inventors!

I could see this being usefull for banquet halls They always have huge stacks of chairs. If they could break down smaller they could save space. Plus you toss a hundred chairs into the room and come back in an hour and they have put themselve together. Ideally in the proper place too.

The perfect therapy chair for paranoid schizophrenics.

This chair has the ultimate use. What a killer prank, they're sitting in their chair, which honestly seems uncomfortable as hell, and you set it up to break apart when it hears something along the lines of, "this chair sucks." which would be hard, but of course they've already made a robotic chair, and that seems way harder. Then it beraks apart, your friend's ass hurts, and when it reassembles itself you can just till them he better apologize to the damn chair.

Big deal, Jimmy Neutron's dog does a better job. (Not to mention Iron Giant, but that's not real.)

(Yes, I'm kidding.)

Unfreakingbeleivable.

I'd rather see it happen with someone sitting in it.

Very cool, but what purpose does it serve?

I can see this being a huge hit in Japan. The land of all the crazy things no other country seems to want to buy.
"You bought a chair that does what? It's pointless."
"What are you talking about?! With this chair that breaks itself I will amaze all my insane automatic collapsing chair otaku friends!"

Ah, the memories. Someone should combine this thing with a Segway so that you can get a personal movement vehicle that dismantles itself when you're riding on it :P

As an art piece, it works but has no real practical use otherwise.

I must have one of these for my joke chamberpot, I will not be outbid on Ebay!

I swear u guys posted this a long time ago...or did that chair just put itself together?

Transformchairs, chairs in disguise...
this would make the best dinner party joke, having the chair dismantle itself whilst a mate was sitting on it...

Yet another step toward Skynet. Clearly, the Pentagon will be all over this. "Oh, you blew up our unmanned robotic tank? I don't think so." When something can be blown apart and then reassemble itself, how much is that worth? These guys should have no problems with funding.

This so reminds me of the Replicators on Stargate SG-1. Don't know what the Replicators are? Essentially, they are self-replicating machines that can also assemble themselves into larger, different functioning units.

Oh yeah, we really need to save Stargate!
http://gizmosforgeeks.com/index.php/news/2554