a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Who is Ivan E. Sutherland? Ivan was born in 1938, Nebraska, USA and is a computer pioneer, inventing Sketchpad, being the first what we now call a Graphical User Interface (GUI). He also built a walking machine, but that will be the subject to another post later. As an under-graduate student, Ivan, with his elder brother …
Read More “W. Grey Walter, Edmund C. Berkeley, Ivan E. Sutherland and the Tortoise”
ELMER – (ELectro-MEchanical Robot) How the media reported the coming of ELMER : Lethbridge Herald – Wednesday , February 25, 1948 Robot Tortoise Likes Women – Recognizes Voices, Comes To Meet When Called-Can be Sulky LONDON. Feb. 25 Daily Express reported today that Dr. W. Grey Walter. 38-year-old brain scientist has built a robot tortoise so "human …
Read More “M. speculatrix – a new species of animal – ELMER”
Ray Cooper, the last director of the Burden Neurological Institute, wrote this bio on Grey Walter for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ( http://www.oxforddnb.com ) . (William) Grey Walter (1910-1977), Walter, (William) Grey (1910-1977), neurophysiologist, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on 19 February 1910, the only child of Karl Wilhelm Walter (1880-1965), a British …
There are various bio's out there on Grey Walter already, but I thought I'd try a different approach. One of the better references on Grey Walter and his tortoises is, interestingly enough, the book titled "Discussions on Child Development" in one volume 1971. Most researchers on Grey Walter and his tortoises usually only reference the …