The proliferation of cheap toy robot-dogs means a bottomless source of parts and ideas for robot hackers. This site has extensive information on transforming robot-dogs into a variety of things, including a semi-autonomous gamma-radiation detector.
The first operation was performed on the Megabyte II, aka, the Radio Control Mega Byte Cyber Watch Dog by Wow Wee International Ltd. [US$39.99] A radioactivity sensor [GeigerMuller Counter Kit; US$60] was fitted in his nose; a new brain [pic microprocessors] was transplanted into his spinal region. The new brain overides the Wow Wee program and MegaByte II now functions as gamma source radiation detector. His path is now defined by radiation concentration gradients. Watch video of MegaByte II successfully locating the source of radiation in a domestic fire alarm. rtsp://milhouse.cat.nyu.edu/docidog1.rm ; rtsp://milhouse.cat.nyu.edu/docidog2.rm See further adaptations and features refer to the DogReport
Matt Jones is live-blogging a demo/talk by the author, with even more high-robot weirdness:
* “the robotic genre of cinematography”: a whole subclass of films where you see lab floors from a vantage point about 8 inches high – most famous example: mars sourjouner films
* Doing things like robotic dogs that illustrate the invisbile is about democratising and making widespread the “scientific method”. Peer-review in pub lic. Allows people to ask questions of those who are making assertions and policy about the environments: “hey what are those dogs doing” “what do those cloned trees mean” etc. start a diaolgue rather than receiving wisdom.
(Thanks, Matt!)