Robotic Bins and Benches in Cambridge 138
OldBus writes "According to the BBC robotic bins and benches have been installed in Cambridge. According to the article, they 'move and chuckle' and 'sing when the sun comes out.'" From the article: "Mr Bogen hopes the cutting edge technology would help keep the bins and benches safe from theft. The Junction has a three year maintenance contract with Greyworld and plans to name all the bins and benches individually to make carrying out repairs easier."
Less likely theft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hang about. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hang about. (Score:2, Insightful)
it's one of those things that you can look at and within 1 microsecond say to yourself 'I give them a week before they're stolen, covered in graffiti or vandalised".
There's a fairly sleepy seaside town near me and the shopping area (a 1 minute walk from end to end) has just sprouted an all-stainless-steel 'information point' with a 17" LCD screen - I looked at it and within 1 microsecond.....
What is the obsession... (Score:2, Insightful)
While I applaud the effort for making it artsy and cool, trying to say that the technology is useful for anything else preemptively is well, marketing bullshit and hype. It's nice to dream but sometimes we have to all keep our feet on the ground.
Re:Large-scale irritation (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder what it would be like if you programmed these things to squeal in agony like a baby animal being tortured. We have a tendency to fill in human characteristics to anything that exhibits behavior we can fit into a human patter -- behavior we can find a human explanation for. People who live with an old car for a long time tend to personify it's mechanial quirks.
Randomly breaking into song is just stupid elevator music, but singing to great the sunrise has a kind of charm to it.
In any case, I'd bet exhibiting pain would deter many casual vandals. The ones who aren't deterred may be people you want to keep your eye on.
Re:I'll let you know what they're like... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Less likely theft? (Score:3, Insightful)
I can smell numerous end of year scavenger hunts.