While the best minds of our time are struggling to create and improve the capabilities of artificial intelligence, equal and superior to human, some inventors create robots with an emphasis on human weaknesses. Perhaps, in our pragmatic world, a place will be found for this category of androids, and one of the prizes will go to Drinky, the first robot drinking companion who knows how to form and support a company. :)

The copyright for Drinky, the world's first and so far the only robot drinking companion, belongs to South Korean engineer and inventor Yunchan Park. He is sure Drinky is the perfect way out of the situation for lonely drinkers who have no way of sharing their leisure time with friends, relatives or acquaintances. However, Drinky, in his opinion, will be indispensable in those cases when a person does not suffer from a painful addiction to alcohol and was forced to find himself in a situation where everyone who could support the company under various pretexts refused such an offer. Drinking alone is boring, but knocking over a glass of Drinky is a completely different matter. The robot does not speak yet, but, as you know, the best interlocutor is the one who knows how to listen.)

If we exclude the factor of verbal communication, the robot, in its own way, successfully creates the illusion of the presence of a real drinking companion - it artistically raises a glass, offers to clink glasses, and drinks the contents with such enthusiasm as if tomorrow never comes. To enhance the effect of presence, the creator of Drinky endowed it with the ability to turn pink after drinking on the right or left cheek. From time to time, the robot decides that the pause has dragged on and, with an eloquent gesture of its free hand from the glass, demands to immediately fill the empty container.

The idea for a robot drinking companion came to Park a few years ago when he was forced to spend Christmas all alone. “This robot is called Drinky. He drinks and drinks a lot! On Christmas 2012, I had to drink soju (a traditional Korean alcoholic beverage) alone because at that time I broke up with my girlfriend. Drinking all alone was very sad. I poured myself into a glass, picked it up as if there was another person in front of me, and drank. The taste of the drink seemed to me completely different. And then I thought then that the taste of alcohol can really depend on whether you drink it alone or in a company. So the decision was made to create this robot, ”Yunchan shares.

Listing the advantages of his creation, Yongchang jokes that Drinky is indeed an almost perfect drinking companion: under no circumstances does he need to be brought to his senses and taken home, he can drink as much as you allow, and at the same time he will not make him clean up after himself, neither under no circumstances will he show aggression and will not sort things out with you and, finally, he allows you to reuse the infused into himself, since he uses a sterile removable reservoir as a stomach. Of course, Yongchang adds, you shouldn't compete with him - the result is quite predictable.

The idea to establish commercial production of Drinky, and in the future, and its improved versions that support the possibility of dialogue, was not considered in principle by Yunchan Park. Although it is completely impossible to rule out the possibility that the project could be successful somewhere on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, it should not be completely ruled out. Perhaps the creator of Drinky was still confused by the ethical aspect of the invention - the process of communicating with a tireless bot is a rather serious challenge for those who have certain problems with alcohol.

The plummeting hydrocarbon prices, willy-nilly, are forcing more and more people to turn to the experience of the Soviet modernization project, as a result of which the country has turned from a peasant country into the second industrial superpower in the world ... And few are surrounded by so many heterogeneous myths as this very Soviet modernization project. Moreover, myth-making is carried out on various ends of the political spectrum ...

Well, here is the soil mythology. That, they say, we are all ourselves, and overtaking everyone ... The apotheosis of this movement reached at the turn of the forties-fifties of the last century, but even the schoolchildren of the sixties could enjoy in the textbook Clerk Kryakutny's balloon and Mozhaisky's plane soaring in the clouds (the latter was welcomed by the advanced classes: artisan - with a cap, a peasant with a three-ear and a student with a cap ...). The authors of the textbook were not stopped by the fact that Mozhaisky's plane could not fly in the clouds, and Kryakutny was entirely invented by the master of falsification of antiques Sulakadzev ...

The mythology of the RCMP joins with it. In this case, it looks like "Soviet industrialization was done by tsarist engineers." Well, the roles of academicians Winter, Graftio, Zhukovsky, Fersman, generals Durlyakher, Manikovsky, Fedorov, engineers Bonch-Bruyevich, Ramzin, Shukhov, have never been denied. But here's the detail - there were few pre-revolutionary engineers, with their very high qualifications. Very little - this fact was brought to us by the classics in the image of the Talmudovsky engineer, who enthusiastically chose a place of work among the construction projects of the first five-year plan. And the Soviet industrialization project needed a massive specialist.

And this is clearly seen in the circulation of technical books. Before the Great Patriotic War, the main reference book in the country was Hütte - for the first time "Reference book for engineers, architects, mechanics and students" was translated in Russia in 1863, and published in an edition of 1,500 copies. And we are looking at the fifteenth Russian translation of 1933 - 25,000. And - right after it, the sixteenth edition. This is the scale of the educational and modernization project. But it was implemented, as we see, on the basis of the German reference book, supplemented by domestic standards and norms.

Good translation of scientific and technical literature has been a purposeful policy throughout the existence of the USSR. Since the sixties of the last century, the Mir publishing house has specialized in this, supported by highly qualified translators and editors. It is difficult to estimate the scale of book publishing of this period - the books of this edition were traditionally published without an indication of the circulation (apparently because of the copyright games that took place already in those years). But they formed an operational and widespread understanding of the state of affairs in world science and technology perfectly ...

That is - in the industrial era, supporting the dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge was a state policy. It is curious how it is now supposed to "get off the oil needle", which by itself ceases to provide benevolent feeding of the spoiled organism of society, without the formation of a sufficiently massive layer of qualified specialists - by world standards qualified - specialists? ..

But the era is different now, post-industrial. And for her arrival the editors of the Mir publishing house were preparing the children of the sixties. Here came out in 1968 in the series "Foreign Science Fiction" - such small books, scarce in large cities, which had to be bought in selmags and garrison shops - the author's collection of Henry Kuttner "Robot-savvy", instantly acquired a cult status. The title story, The Proud Robot, was originally published in Astounding Science-Fiction's October 1943 book.

And this fantastic humoresque depicts the image of the post-industrial era with amazing precision. The main character, the inventor Gallegher, works for the owner of a television company. But he is occupied with absolutely different tasks with which the real Sarnoff loaded the real Zvorykin. No, no, all problems with image quality and signal transmission have been solved a long time ago. The tycoons of the media market are worried about pirates ... Those who use the TV signal are not the way TV businessmen intended.

Let's not deprive those readers who are not familiar with Kuttner's work of the pleasure of reading the story. Let's just say that the story features a robot created in order to open cans of beer ... This is what the challenge awaited in the post-industrial world of "smart machines". To turn out to be a cybernetic servant of the ancient Hellenic god Bacchus ... And the fact that at the height of World War II was a funny invention is now becoming a harsh reality.

That's what the press is writing these days - Cheers! Meet Drinky, the shot-downing robot designed to get DRUNK with its owner. A South Korean inventor - by name, however, not Galleger, but even Eunchan Park - created a drinking companion robot - by the name, however, not Joe, like Kuttner's, but Drinky. You can look at a funny typewriter, gesticulating, enthusiastically overturning a glass with its right paw, and a skillfully sniffing manufactory, or whatever the left paw is wearing.

Thing - the most useful in the era of the collapse of social ties of traditional society! Drinking with him is much more interesting and productive than with a traditional "coach" ... The sellers of alcohol should definitely invest in the mass production of Drinky! And sell them as related products in liquor stores, and give them a gift to respectable customers after accumulating the required number of points on discount cards ...

But seriously ... Seriously, many authors who describe the social consequences of mass robotization generally consider it to be noted that the only work left for young people will be the craft of a barista, a boy-girl in a branded jacket, pouring coffee for you from a vending machine of this or that bells and whistles ...

Well, any coffee, except for the one brewed in cupronickel cezve of the Yerevan plant from its own ground beans, there is a general catering abuse of the product, even if it is served in ceramics, and not in styrene, beloved across the ocean ... And it is not clear why a protein element should be introduced into the technological circuit ... Maybe it’s easier to teach (not heartlessly program, but conscientiously teach a neural network!) Such a robot to brew coffee using traditional technologies? Exactly what you prefer ...

A funny thought - a lot more money can be made on the culture of coffee than on alcohol ... But seriously, the simple toy Drinky speaks of a serious thing. Even in the service sector, a robot will be more competitive than a human. And - quite possibly - more attractive. This is good news for those who are going to build a career in the field of "smart cars" and bad news for those who would like to work as baristas and sommeliers ... But we are writing, it seems, not for the latter!

Have you ever dreamed of a friend who will always keep company, drink a cup of aromatic coffee or something stronger? Then the unique robot drinking companion, or, as it is also called, the robot bartender, will become just a godsend! The cyborg model not only looks unique and attracts at first sight, but also has a good assembly and functionality. Reviews about the robot are only positive, as are the impressions of users from its work. Cyborg will be able to drink with you, as well as have a heart-to-heart talk, which is sometimes so lacking in the modern pace of life!

Features of the robot drinking buddy

• The model is made of durable and non-toxic plastic, while the case is equipped with electronics, which moves the head, limbs and torso of the cyborg;
• The robot contains containers for liquid, through which it can easily drink and pour drinks;
• The model is supplemented with the ability to play sounds, standard phrases that are recorded on an SD card. If desired, the user can save his speech or preferred phrases;
• The drinking containers are made of food-grade plastic, however the manufacturer does not recommend drinking drinks after the robot has passed them through its cycle.
• The model is unpretentious in maintenance, it needs extremely dry cleaning.

Functionality of the robot drinking buddy

The model is interesting from the point of view of presentation and idea, since the ability to drink alcohol is not given to every modern bot. The cyborg drinking companion is made of non-toxic plastic, and the bot is powered by an AC / DC 220V / 5V adapter. It is important that all conductive parts are reliably hidden, which eliminates the likelihood of injury. The drinking companion robot is not intended for drinking highly viscous beverages, such as kefir, jelly or unfiltered compotes. The liquid containers are made of food grade plastic, however, you should not drink drinks that were used by the robot.

The robot bartender is equipped with movable limbs, head and body, which makes the model very realistic. The features of the robot include the presence of a built-in ultrasonic rangefinder, through which the cyborg can establish the distance to the person and activate. When a guest or device owner approaches, the robot transforms into a friendly bartender, ready to drink drinks and amuse the audience.
Cyborg easily reproduces sounds recorded on the included SD card. The user will be able to save new phrases, more preferable for himself.

The interactive bartender is equipped with several tanks: one hidden and the other external, visually resembling a cup. The elements of the system are connected by a pump, which, when the sensor is triggered, starts to work and feed the drink into the "glass". When the robot drinks the poured liquid, the liquid flows back into the rear reservoir. The model is not intended for large-scale use, only suitable for home use. The package includes illustrated instructions to assist in the assembly, care and use of the model. The bot works in a chain of 5 modes, in which the toy recognizes the guest, pours a glass, drinks a drink, and again runs the liquid into a hidden reservoir. The price of the product is reasonable, considering all the functional features and capabilities of the cyborg.

Who should buy a drinking companion robot for?

The model is impressive in appearance and undeniable quality, however, it is not intended for use in restaurants, bars or cafes. The bot can expand your home collection of interactive toys for individual use.