MECHANICAL WONDERS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 February 1930, Page 3

MECHANICAL WONDERS

MACHINES ALMOST HUMAN

AMAZING AMERICAN “ROBOT.”

OAR DRIVEN BY TELEPHONE

SAN FRANCISCO, January 22.

The latest robot to stalk into the New York metropolitan areas did so with a menacing glance at the pay cheque of the traffic policeman arid with the modest announcement that so far as the control of traffic and the •Solution of its problems were concerned the human intelligence, compared to its own, was a very frail organism. Sceptics were silenced by demonstrations in the Hotel Roosevelt of its uncanny ability', not only to react differently under different circumstances to the same impulses, but to do so “intelligently,” and were referred for evidence to the tireless and efficient performanes. of the hundred odd members of its family now on day alnd night duty in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and “every other large city in the East except New York.”

The electro-matic traffic dispatching system, as this mecliaiVibal policeman has been named formally, 4s composed of three units, the ordinary bracket of red white and green lights, a number of “vehicle-sensitive” unifs or “fingers” concealed in the pavement of the streets adjacent to an intersection, and a central control or “brain” that takes cognisance of,the various impulses from its feblers,- sizes up the situation and acts accordingly. As the wheels of a car approaching the intersection pass over the detector it does more than merely give evidence of their passing. It informs tic “brain” exactly how fast the machine is moving and consequently how long it will be before it reaches the crossing aiid how long to allow for its passage. Furthermore, the number of such impulses received a minute indicates the density of the traffic. Never flustered, Mr Robot simply alters his tactics to conform to the needs of the moment when traffic becomes unusually heavy.

HOW IT DIRECTS TRAFFIC. On thoroughfares a constant green light accords the right of way to the through traffic. A car approaching on a side road, however, is immediately given the right to pass upon its arrival at the intersection provided no vehicle is approaching along the. main road. In the case of a constant stream of traffic on the highway the apparatus takes instant advantage of any break in the flow to allow the waiting car passage, a procedure that-bettersAthut of human traffic officers who sbMi always partial to stragglers. Should no gap appear the light is. switched any way alter the car on the cross-rood has wait-, od a reasonable length of time. Tram cars and- pedestrians also are treated with an unvarying courtesy, and it is contended that the apparatus is as imperturahle on an eight-road intersection as on 'the ordinary crossroad junction. Unlike the ordinar\ policeman, it can see in all directions at once, docs its work at one-sixth the cost an hour to the city, never gets weary and under no circumstances says “Hey where do you think you are going? Let me see that license.” AN UNCANNY INVENTION.

A driverless automobile obeyed tlie spoken word, moved backward and forward and turning on its lights at instruction dictated through a telephone when Mr R. H. Maxwell, Westingho’me research engineer, exhibited Jibe uncanny invention in New York at the National Automobile Show. At the command to move forward, spoken into the telephone, the motor car went ahead until told to halt. It was backed up 40 feet, baited, and the lights were turned on and off at, the word of the “dri**pr,” Tlie telephone was wired to a light source, hidden in a minature +ree. Each word flashed the. light, in cnmbinntion of one to four flashes operating through the light-sensitive eell to relays which controlled the ear. Though too new to have found a practical use in driving, tlie device can make it possible, it was claimed for a traffic officer if nil the automobiles were eouinped, to control vehicles merely by talking.

Mr Maxwell, who gave the demonstration before members of an automobile club attending the automobile show in'a body, envisioned a day when all of the sting of a policemen’s bands would be removed. “The device has a language of his own,” be said. “It must lie spoken to in a polite tone of voice. When a motorist passes a red light instead of the usual. ‘Hey, come back here,” the officer will have to say calmly ‘Back up, please.’ ” An “electric eye” nlse opened a garage door when the driver pointed his spotlight on the sensitive mechanism.