Today and Tomorrow has some photos and a video of a cool robotic sculpture from the late 1960s, designed by Edward Ihnatowicz. Senster would be right at home at Maker Faire!
The Senster was a robotic sculpture developed by Edward Ihnatowicz in the late 60’s. It was commisioned by Philips and part of their permanent showplace, the Evoluon, in Eindhoven between 1970 and 1974. It was the first robotic sculpture to be controlled by a computer and could react to the behaviour of the visitors with its sound and movement sensors. The computer used to control The Senster was a Philips P9201 and had only 8K of core memory. Now, almost 40 years later, every interaction student could make something like this and fit the logic in a small box. But this is still an amazing project.The Senster (Via Mt. Holly Mayor's Office)
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It actually still exists. After the museum closed the company responsible for welding it took it back and turned it into a sculpture: http://www.dse.nl/~evoluon/sensnu.html
WOW! That's really amazing that they did that. It's even more eerie sitting out in that field all alone. Here's a translation of that page.
When Edward Ihnatowicz the Senster built in 1970, he has no actual welding myself. Converting a large amount of pipes to the robot was made by the company Verburg Holland located in a small town in Zeeland. This company did a lot of electrical work in the Evoluon along that path and has the contract for building the Senster had. Because it was aware of the historical value of the Senster wanted to throw him away, but they have him as a work of art in the grass beside the company put on a few concrete feet and there he stands still.
Hess Winery in Napa has an amazing collection of modern art with a number of very interesting interactive pieces. If you are in the Napa area, it is well worth the time to see.
I can't imagine how awesome this robot would have been in the 60s.
eee. i remember this guy from my usborne book of robots :)
I remember reading about this thing in a newspaper and thinking, "that sounds so cool - I'd really like to see it working.". Of course I never did - until now.
Thank you guys for another box 'ticked'! :-)
This is interesting because I had heard the Senster was constructed for Edward Ihnatowicz at UCL Mechanical Engineering in London.
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