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downtime » chip chat<br />
» CARMEL SEALEY REPORTS ON THE LIGHTER SIDE OF TECH NEWS<br />
Phone-user-friendly<br />
crossing lights<br />
KEEPING DARWINISM AT BAY SINCE <strong>2017</strong>.<br />
Working in the city, we know exactly<br />
how common it is to see someone<br />
walking down the street, looking at<br />
their phones and not at the things they<br />
should be. Despite the “Distracted…?<br />
Watch out, cars about!” campaign from<br />
2015–2016, it’s clear the unsafe<br />
practice is not about to stop. So what<br />
has Melbourne done to combat the<br />
dangerous use of mobile phones among<br />
pedestrians? To stop them from<br />
blindingly walking out into the road<br />
at traffic lights, the city has installed<br />
“mobile-friendly” crossing lights that<br />
have been embedded into the ground<br />
to attract the downturned gaze of<br />
phone-users. These lights reflect what<br />
the little red/green man is doing, thus<br />
potentially saving the lives of many a<br />
foolish phone-user who never looks up.<br />
Find My iPhone(s)<br />
helps police catch<br />
thief with 130 stolen<br />
handsets<br />
Hands to yourself, sneakthief.<br />
While many people use Apple’s Find My iPhone app to locate their device after<br />
putting it down somewhere in the house (or was it the car?), it was recently used at<br />
the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California to catch a smartphone<br />
thief. Police were first made aware of the extent of the thefts through Reddit<br />
(where victims were posting warnings), and then enlisted the help of concert-goers<br />
using Find My iPhone. After pinpointing the culprit using the app, victims alerted<br />
security who apprehended one Ronaldo De Jesus Henao on suspicion of theft. In his<br />
bag was over 130 smartphones. (How was he not over-encumbered...?)<br />
First punch thrown in human vs robot war<br />
KNIGHT-KNIGHT.<br />
It takes quite a bit of strength to floor a 135kg machine, but a 41-year-old<br />
inebriated man has somehow managed it in a Silicon Valley shopping centre<br />
carpark. His victim? A 5ft-tall Knightscope K5 security robot (that looks like<br />
a giant techy Tic-Tac) tasked with scanning licence plates. While the robot was<br />
knocked to the ground and sustained minor scratches, it was happily back at work<br />
the following week, and its attacker was arrested on charges of “prowling and<br />
public intoxication”. As well as monitoring cars and unusual activity with its<br />
360° cameras, Knightscope is hoping its tin-can security guards will soon be able<br />
to detect guns.<br />
Startup wants to create<br />
robot brothel in London<br />
YOU CAN’T RESIST US, MR POWERS...<br />
If the LSR (International Congress on<br />
Love and Sex with Robots) has taught<br />
us anything, it’s that humans like to<br />
bang anything that moves, whether it’s<br />
organic or not. So it comes with almost<br />
no surprise that a Spanish company<br />
named LumiDolls is looking to open a<br />
robot brothel in London. Boasting to<br />
be Europe’s “first sex dolls agency”,<br />
the company promises “completely<br />
realistic dolls, both in the movement<br />
of their joints and to the touch, that<br />
will allow you to fulfill your fantasies<br />
without any limits”. (Note to self,<br />
suppress mental images.) LumiDolls’<br />
first venue, in Barcelona, was forced<br />
to shut down after complaints were<br />
made from real-life prostitutes,<br />
but it has since reopened elsewhere.<br />
The company now has its sights set on<br />
London and is looking for an investor.<br />
114 www.apcmag.com
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