SAM His first cybernetic work that moved directly and recognisably in response to what was going on around it was the
Sound Activated Mobile (SAM). It had four
microphones mounted in front of
fiberglass parabolic reflectors (reminiscent of a flower) on top of a spine-like column of
aluminium castings.
Hydraulic pistons in the
vertebra-like units allowed the neck to twist from side-to-side and bend forwards and backwards. An
analogue circuit was used to control the hydraulics to move the
robot to face the direction of the predominant sound. It was exhibited at the
Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition which was held initially at the
Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1968 and later toured Canada and the US ending at the
Exploratorium in San Francisco. SAM's behaviour, that of turning to face people as they talked and tracking their movement if they continued to make a sound, together with its sensitivity to quiet but sustained noise, rather than loud shouts, encouraged many people to spend time in front of it, trying to attract its attention.
The Senster His most significant work was The
Senster, a large hydraulically actuated
robot that followed the sound and motion of the people around it, giving the impression of being alive. The
Senster was the first robotic
sculpture to be controlled by a computer. It used an array of four microphones to detect the direction of the sound around it and two
Doppler radar arrays to measure the motion of people. A computer program controlled the
hydraulic actuators to move the body so that the Senster was attracted by sound and movement but repelled by loud noises and violent motion. The program bears a strong resemblance to that used in
behavior-based robotics developed a decade later.
The Bandit His final work of Cybernetic Art was
The Bandit, which was exhibited at the
Computer Arts Society exhibition at the
Edinburgh Festival, UK in 1973. It was a hydraulically actuated lever controlled by a computer and had two modes: one where it was position controlled and one where it was force controlled. When a visitor first held onto the lever, it was force controlled, with a demand value of zero. The person could thus move the arm as he/she pleased. The computer system recorded the series of motions, then switched to position control mode, where it played the series of positions back to the person. The way the person reacted to the motion of the arm was statistically analysed and the computer program printed out its classification of the gender and temperament of the person. ==Biography==