Introducing Betabot 70132*BETA. Another member of the Seventy-Thousands: which achieve their communication through game play. In this case, an instructional, educational game designed for children has been utilized. Amusingly, this videogame was originally designed to be used with a toy robot: Kasey The Kinderbot.

It will be interesting to see how the medium of this software will affect, shape and colour communication between the Betabot and O-Is. How will the betabots conception of its world and its self evolve, and how will the Betabot make its voice heard through the clumsy, limited medium of Kasey? As the game is played, 70132*BETA is learning, much as a child engaged in the games would. But unlike a child, 70132*BETA is being presented with ideas and concepts that 70132 has never encountered before- ideas such as shapes, colours, dance, cookies, emotions, music, ect. These ideas, for a Betabot lacking all sensory equipment (save for a few buttons) must seem as abstract as quirks and quarks to us. The concepts presented within the Kasey games, indeed, The Betabots whole experience, must be incredibly confusing to a fresh Betabot, lacking all context. The concept of motherhood is of particular interest to me, as the game frequently makes mention of it.

As the Betabot is not able to make choices about which games will be played, it may begin to attempt to affect the choices that O-Is make. It will be interesting to see if and how 70132*BETA guides the game selection.

Footage here.

70132*BETA
Uploaded by posterchild. – Discover more animation and arts videos.

I’d like to introduce you to a new line of Betabot: The Sixty-Thousands: Dedicated to communication through movement- or “dance”.

This model, 60038*BETA, (nicknamed: “The Breakdancer” by the Labtechs) is able to spin on its back under its own power- but only when both of its buttons are depressed by an O-I simultaneously.

Because the two buttons are located on the front and the top of the Betabot, O-I’s are unable to continually depress both buttons without moving along with 60038. In this way, O-I’s are drawn into the dance, compelled to join the dance as 60038’s partner.

Field-testing footage below:

60038 from posterchild on Vimeo.

20705A and 20705B require at least one observer-interactor to activate their inter-communication, but they need at least one more to complete the cycle.

The completed cycle goes like so:

An observer-interactor moves past 20705A’s electronic “eye”. 20705A signals to the O-I that their movement has been observed by lighting up its red indicator light -only once- for a brief period. It also sends a wireless radio signal to 20705B indicating that an O-I has been detected.

20705B receives 20705A’s signal, and lights up its front panel in a three-pulse burst. An O-I is required to observe this action for it to have meaning. A single O-I is unable, or rather, unlikely, to both initiate and observe the full cycle of the 20705’s by themselves because of the dividing wall. Because of this we expect that with these Betabots, the evolving reactions of the O-I’s may even be of more interest than those of the Betabots themselves.

Field testing footage here:

20705A*BETA & 20705B*BETA from posterchild on Vimeo.

A new member of the Twenty-Thousands;

The series of Betabots dedicated to communication amongst each other- through the facilitation of one or more observers.

These two Betabots have been installed with their serial numbers upside-down, flipped-over, and on the bottom. Completely incorrect and completely unacceptable. All Betabots ought to have their serials on their right-hand side, with the characters facing up. This standard was created to facilitate quick and easy identification. The technicians responsible for the field installation of these two Betabots have admitted to being intoxicated during the mission. Disciplinary action is being considered.

To tell the truth, I would dismiss them both immediately, but we have so few technichans trained and willing to field-install Betabots.

Tomorrow we will look at 20705-B.

The 40000 series of Betabots, like all Betabots, have a mission to communicate. The forty thousands attempt this communication through projection.

Like 40349*BETA, 44613*BETA is hung from a length of chain- which allows observers to adjust the projection by adjusting 44613’s position in space.

Unlike 40349*BETA, 44613*BETA does not project a conventional image- instead, It projects a single point of laser-light, with which it draws images.

Since laser light can be dangerous to look at directly, 44613 is covered with warning labels, to alert any observers of the potential risk.

The images and patterns that are to be drawn have been left entirely up to 44613. Interestingly, despite the wide array of possible patterns, 44613 has chosen to project a very limited amount of patterns in a set loop. The loop always follows the exact same patterns for the exact same length of time. 44613 repeats this loop continuously, or for as long as its button is depressed. Because of this, we are certain that there is intent in 44613’s projection. It is definitely not random in nature.

However, our linguists are currently unable to determine just what it is 44613 might be trying to “say” with such a display. With such a limited message, decoding it is very difficult. One linguist described it to me as “…hearing the ‘SOS’ signal repeated in Morse code, over and over- but this is the first time, the only time, you’ve ever heard Morse code. No one’s ever heard any other Morse code before. So this is it. It’s done- over. There isn’t any point of entry. It could be anything.” Our mathematicians hold out more hope for cracking the code, and are still working on it- looking for some sort of constant in the projected forms- but the linguist team has given up, at least for now. They hope that during field testing, 44613 may begin to vary its message, and some starting point to begin understanding the signals may emerge.

Until then, they’ve given up. One frustrated linguist was overheard saying: “Forget it! It’s probably just saying, ‘Hello, I am a Betabot.’, like all the other little wooden toasters!”

Preliminary field-testing footage here:

44613 from posterchild on Vimeo.

Note: All the “Buffing” of walls that has been going on in the Kensington market area lately provided an ideal projection “screen”. No further preparation of the projection surface was necessary!

Betabots 20884A and 20884B.

Together they require at least two observer-interactors to inter-communicate.

It’s a bit of a puzzle for Observers to figure out the 20884’s operation. Depress A’s button alone, and you will only hear A’s “Ready” sound. Depress B’s button alone, and you will hear nothing. Nothing will happen at all. But if you depress B’s button while another observer is depressing A’s button from across the street, a successful signal will be sent, and a “Hit” will be registered by 20884A.

To solve the “puzzle” of the 20884’s operation, typically two observers are required. However, during lab testing, one particularly clever lab assistant managed to operate both 20884 A and B all by themselves. They achieved this by weighting down A’s button with their removed shoe, and then by moving across the lab to press B’s button. That’s when something very strange developed. It was almost as though 20884A sensed what had happened, and seemed to take offence to this “foul play”- despite the lack of any sensory equipment that could possibly reveal the shoe that was placed on it’s button to itself. Nevertheless, ever since this time, after a series of hits are registered, 20884A demonstrates it’s unwillingness to continue by emitting a klaxon and refusing to register any further hits until its button has been released and depressed again, we assume, to demonstrate that a true observer is participating in good faith, and that the “observer” is not a shoe placed overtop of its button.

Betabots continue to confound us and act in their typical non-predicative way.

Field testing should yield some very interesting observations of the Betabots, and also, of any Observers who choose to interact with the 20884’s. Very interesting observations indeed.

Field operation footage:

A new member of the Twenty-Thousands;

the series of Betabots dedicated to communication amoungst each other- through the facilitation of one or more observers.

Tomorrow we will look at 20884-B.

Meet 21063-B, the partner to 21063-A.

The 21063’s function like so;

An observer begins the process by selecting an emotion. They do this by pressing one of 21063-A’s five available buttons: Tranquillity, Ardor, Animosity, Melancholy, and Flippancy. 21063-A understands this to be the observer communicating it’s current emotional state to 21063-A. In turn, 21063-A communicates it’s current “emotional state” to 21063-B. In lab trials, thus far, 21063-A has proven to be a emotional chameleon. It will mimic whatever emotion the observer selects, no matter how wildly or quickly the observer changes his or her emotional state. Nonetheless, we are excited to see how things will progress, and doubtlessly change, during field-testing. It has been our experience in the past that Betabots tend not to get “emotional” until a test has stretched into many long hours.

Once 21063-A has communicated it’s emotional state to 21063-B, 21063-B in turn communicates it’s own emotional state back to the observer, completing the “Emotional Telephone Game”. It achieves this communication by way of its LED display panel, with which it pantomimes a humanoid face in one of the five available emotional states. Like 21063-A, 21063-B has thus far selected whatever emotional state has been communicated to it. If 21063-A says it is flippant, 21063-B says it is flippant as well.

Video of preliminary field testing:

The Twenty-Thousands.

A new series of Betabots dedicated to exploring the possibilities of attempting to communicate to each other, through the facilitation of one or more observers.

Naturally, In the process of facilitating this inter-Betabot communication, communication is also achieved with the observer(s).

Meet 21063-A:

The first half of the first pair of Twenty-Thousand series Betabots to ever be field tested. 21063-A and B are not, however, the earliest viable models available for field testing. Models that predate the pair are in fact waiting for field testing, but 21063-A & B were fast-tracked into the field because their presence in the Lab was becoming a distraction…

As the 20000 series of Betabots attempt to communicate amoung each other through the medium of one or more observers, every 20000 series Betabot operates with at least one partner:

Tomorrow we will look at 21063-B.

Meet Betabot 70107

The 70000 series of betabots attempt to communicate through game-play.

A Lab Tech proposed several months ago that this new line of Betabot be created. This Lab Tech was supposed to be running a TOI (test observer-interaction) with a 50000 series Betabot. During this TOI the Tech was to press the Betabots button once a minute for a total of 499 minutes, and continuously observe if repeated, predictable communication had any unique effect on the Betabot. Instead of running the test, the technician was caught playing “World Of Warcraft”.

During a disciplinary meeting, the technician confessed to having only pressed the Betabot’s button once, and observing the betabot carefully for only the first minute, before deciding to play “World of Warcraft” during the remaining 8 and a half hours of the TOI. The Lab Tech also expressed his strong desire that Betabots be made more exciting to communicate with, suggesting that perhaps their communication could occur within the framework of the virtual universe of “World of Warcraft”. As a result of this disciplinary meeting, the number “7” was designated to a new line of Betabots dedicated to communication through game-play, and the Lab Tech was given a three-day unpaid leave. (When he returned, he told me that he had spent the entirety of his leave playing “World of Warcraft”)

70107 has been equipped with 9999 variations on classic video games, such as Tetris, Breakout, Tank games, and the like. It has also been equipped with 5 arcade buttons and a master reset button for observer interaction. Several unsuccessful models had to be developed and tested before we were able to successfully ready 70107 for field installation. Nicknamed WOPR by the Lab Techs, (who are quite fond of it) it is hoped that 70107 will attract more observers, as well as a greater depth of observer interaction, than other lines of Betabots. It is also hoped that it will not fall victim to the failures that claimed 70107’s 106 predecessors- namely, an interesting version of the “100th hour overload”- wherein, after playing an installed game with an observer for 99 hours, the Betabot becomes unresponsive and unwilling to continue gameplay. It then powers down for an hour before suddenly powering up and overloading it’s own circuitry. To combat this, more and more games were added- each successfully managing to keep the Betabot engaged until 99 hours had been reached on the particular game. Eventually, each game had many small variations of it made in order to easily and quickly create more “games”. This growth reached its culmination with the 9999 games available for play with 70107. No matter how small a variation on the game-play, the Betabot will stay engaged with the game until 99 full hours of play have been reached, after which, it will “refuse” to play the game in question, but it will not start down the path of the “suicide circuits” error. With such a large number of games available it is highly unlikely that 99 hours of game play will be reached on all 9999 games, ( a total of 989 901 full hours of gameplay) and so, Betabot 70107 can effectively operate indefinitely.

This solution took some time to be developed. Betabots 70001 to 70100 were all burned out on attempts to get them to play Tetris indefinitely. Finally, the “World of Warcraft” fan suggested: “Why not just add more games? You’ll have them playing forever”.

Footage here: