killer apps

“Alex, (as in Trebek as in ‘Jeopardy’), I’ll take, ‘Terms roboticists shouldn’t be using’ for $200, please”.  Yup, Killer Apps is another one on my ‘please do not use in front of the public’. Killer Application (Killer App) used in the robotics industry typically refers to the next big robot application that will be necessary for, or desirable by, all consumers.  Killer app is a commonly understood term in all of technology, but when it is specifically referred to as such in robotics, the public may (again) subconsciously think the ‘Killer’ is threatening, as in, “Oh!  Like the Killer robots used
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Mariska Hargitay: SVU, and blurred lines

I was reading about Mariska Hargitay (am I the only one who didn’t know she’s the daughter of Jayne Mansfield?) in her nail-biting performance in the season premier of Law and Order SVU, in which she is a victim of rape. “When you’re acting,” she said on the Today Show [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoWVoe-Q4Mo[/youtube], “your body doesn’t know the difference [between] acting or being in reality, and that’s what presented the challenge.” I was struck by Hargitay’s admission. To think that telepresence, virtual reality, and the like, are part of our daily lives already evokes a pressing question. Will these technologies, like a professional
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