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Flesh and bone triumphed in the first ever man-versus-machine battle of brawn - an arm wrestling contest between robots and humans in California on Monday.
Interesting story on the development of polymer based artificial muscles and robotics, courtesy of New Scientist [newscientist.com].
The aim is to further develop the technologies so that 'it' can beat any human...
Syzygy
On the surface, this seems kind of trivial. However, I direct your attention to the press-release-writing lessons to be learned here! Not to mention Viral marketing.
Just as DeForest invented the triode tube but Marconi is known as the "father of radio" it simply isn't enough to break technological ground... you have to pique the fickle interests of the lay public, too.
It is obvious that the 'arm wrestling' part of the story is a lightweight publicity stunt aimed at creating greater awareness among a wider audience of the research being done here.
At the same time the 'stunt' element serves as a marker by which progress can be measured in the future.
The aim... is to improve on existing actuators - or muscles - currently used in prosthetics and robots.
Syzygy
My point was the odd-twist human element was picked up all over the country by mainstream press, which never would have happened if it was just a technical piece. I felt this was a great example, given the how-do-I-write-an-attractive-press-release posts that have appeared on WebmasterWorld recently.
I think you got my point just fine on a technical level, but not on the more-subtle "emotional" level which often means so little to us techie types but is EVERYTHING to the average Joe/Jane.
