Meet Apple's Adorable, Pixar-Esque Robot Lamp

Pixar's movies wouldn't be the same without the intro featuring Luxo Jr., the charismatic desk lamp who hops onto the capital I in PIXAR as the animation studio's production logo unspools. While Luxo Jr. is a digital character, a team of researchers at Apple has created a real-world robot that looks just like the Pixar mascot has come to life. The robotics scientists and engineers detailed the project in a paper shared to Apple's Machine Learning Research site in January under the topic "Human-Computer Interaction". The post summarizes the research and includes an eye-catching video of the robot desk lamp in action. The prototype robot shows off a variety of behaviors. It knocks over some wooden blocks like a naughty cat. It follows a book around as it's moved so that it always shines light on the pages. It reacts to a person who's waving at it to show it where to turn. It behaves more like a cute and helpful pet than a cold and calculating robot. Read more: There Sure Are a Lot of ... Read full article.