It’s just like a scene from the not so memorable “Terminator 3 – Rise of the Machines” – Microsoft has decided to introduce K5, a five feet tall, 300 pounds security robot built by robotics company Knightscope, in its campus in the Silicon Valley, PC World reports. The robots are not armed, and not as dangerous as they might sound – but they are fitted with a number of alarms, signals and cameras.
The K5 security robot is a great piece of technology. According to Knightscope, the company behind Microsoft’s new security guards, the robot was built to reduce crime rate by 50% (sounds familiar… only in that case the company was called OCP, and the machine was a bit larger and better armed). The machine can go for 24 hours with one charge, returning to its charging station as soon as it runs low on battery. It can fully recharge in 20 minutes, and continue its quest to reduce trouble. Whenever it discovers something out of the ordinary, it will either sound an alarm, or alert human security guards to intervene.
The Knightscope K5 stands a full 60 inches tall, and has a weight of 300 pounds. It is fitted with optical character recognition software, 360 degree video capture technology, thermal imaging, high quality audio microphones for audio capture, air quality monitors, ultrasonic detectors to help it avoid collision with other objects, infrared cameras for night operation, Radar and Lidar to make it handle objects further away and create an accurate 3D mapping of its environment.
Robots are becoming an increasingly observable presence in our everyday lives. Robots are being developed to help the US military in its missions, South Korea has deployed robotic sentinels in its demilitarized zone in 2010, and Japan is preparing to replace a part of its workforce with Pepper, the walking-talking-smiling little helper. Call me pessimistic, but this seems like the first step to the Million Machine March to me…