If you walk into a bar and see this robotic arm situated at one end of an air hockey table drinking a Miller High Life with a cigarette hanging from its lip yelling “Who’s got next?!", don’t, under any circumstances, play against it for money. It’ll beat you pretty badly. Politely offer to play a gentleman’s game and if the arm refuses, just walk away.
The robot was developed by a company called NuVation and recently won a People’s Choice Award at the Freescale Technology Forum 2008 Americas conference. You might not actually see this apparatus in your local hangout anytime soon, as it requires a pretty elaborate air hockey table setup (sensors, a computer, and so forth) but maybe you could build one of your own as a weekend project, eh?
via Crave