Sunday, February 19, 2012

Tiny Robotic Bee doesn't work?

Tiny Robotic Bee Assembles Itself Like Pop-Up Book, article and video.

This is interesting, but unfortunately it also exemplifies what's rampant these days: unclear, sloppy, and inconclusive "reporting".
I wrote in their comments:

It's a *bit* of a flaw in the article that it does not state whether this little robot works in any way yet. I guess not. But it would be nice to have some statements about how far it is from working. I see it needs an external power-source to flap the wings, that's not promising, and the video does not show it flying. 
"...have been working on bio-inspired robots that are about the same size as a bee, can fly and can work autonomously as a robotic colony." ... sounds like it is working. Not clear writing, folks.

This is from Wired, one of the largest tech-oriented publications we have, both on paper and digitally. Shouldn't there be a minimum standard for completeness of articles in such a publication? Surely the question of whether the technology they report on actually works yet or not, is one of the most essential elements to make clear. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

it also exemplifies what's rampant these days: unclear, sloppy, and inconclusive "reporting"

They must be graduates of the Eolake Stobblehouse school of thinking - lazy, lazy, lazy and expecting other people to fill in the blanks.