A robot takes selfies for 900 years in the National Science Foundation’s hypothetical hyperlapse for National Robotics Week. Starting in 2010, the simulated video features the DARwIn-OP (short for Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence-Open Platform) bot capturing an early morning every ten years until the year 2900. “We like to imagine what robots will do and look like in the future, especially during National Robotics Week,” the NSF explain their press release. “Maybe they'll take selfies before they go to work?”
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In addition to nailing these self-portraits with his quirky fashion choices, which include as scarves, oversized headphones, and Mardi Gras beads, DARwIn-OP has played a role in more serious cutting-edge experiments. Take the RoboCup, for instance, a “robotics competition intended to challenge roboticists to create humanoid robots capable of playing soccer, an activity that requires complex physical and computational abilities.” Keep in mind that while DARwIn-OP's postulated selfie splurge is just the product of a few scientists' imaginations, there's currently a camera taking one photo over the course of the next 1,000 years.
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