Robotic Artist Draws Portraits

Ah, robots. We love them, we hate them, we love to hate them. I've seen robots that assist the elderly and play the violin and now I've seen robots with an artistic talent.

Robotic researcher Sylvain Calinon, has created a humanoid robot which will draw an image of any person that stands in front of it. Basically, it realizes you're standing there, takes your picture and then voila, insta-doodle. Actually it takes the main characteristics from the photo and after becoming an x/y plotter, will fill in the details of the imagine.

While my first thought is 'how cute' I do think this would be quite useful. Depending on how correct it is, if it were synced with a surveillance camera it might be useful in crime solving, just thinking ahead.

Sylvain Calinon [via technabob]