South Korea Deploys Killer Robot In DMZ 243
shikaisi writes "Not content with just killing people in computer games, South Korea has gone one better and is deploying remotely controlled sentry robots on the border with the north. According to the article 'If the command centre operator cannot identify possible intruders through the robot's audio or video communications system, the operator can order it to fire its gun or 40mm automatic grenade launcher.'"
You have 30 seconds to comply (Score:4, Funny)
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In related news, following the announcement that South Korea would soon be deploying robotic turrets, North Korea announced that the army would double their production of zerglings and mutalisks.
I'd mod you funny, but you don't announce zerglings. You unburrow them.
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Or something that sounds like a gun shot!
Good (Score:5, Insightful)
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Uh, it's South Korea that's deploying the robots. You think North Korea has the engineering capability to pull something like that off?
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I think they could. Most engineers could make a robot from toy parts. Now adays. Even though North Korea is mostly blocked off from the rest of the world, it could get its hands on some rather simple non-classified low tech stuff.
Remote Control, a Web Cam, and some servos attach them to a gun and you have a killing robot.
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if the mythbusters could do it, so can north korea
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You do understand that Mythbusters has a substantially higher budget than the DPRK, don't you?
And, as far as I can tell, better engineers. Except maybe for Tory.
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You do understand that Mythbusters has a substantially higher budget than the DPRK, don't you?
Humm. No. North Korea definitely has bigger guns and bigger budget than Mythbusters. Last I heard missles and "classified weapons" command pretty good pennies in the black market.
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You do understand that Mythbusters has a substantially higher budget than the DPRK, don't you?
yeah, but they burned it all on duct-tape, so now we're getting to watch repeats disguised as remakes.
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You think North Korea has the engineering capability to pull something like that off?
Yes, people my age were all taught while growing up that one of the poorest countries on the planet is a terrifying threat to our very existence.
Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the poorest countries on earth is a nuclear power with medium range ballistic missiles capable of devastating Japan and short range artillery capable of devastating S. Korea. This is a country that the US and S. Korea are still officially at war with, and they occasionally attack. I forgot to mention that it is run by a delusional god emperor known for kidnapping TV personalities from other nations for his own personal entertainment.
Where is James Bond when you need him.
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No good, the North Koreans already managed to capture him once (Die Another Day)
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Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
If the USA would give the DPRK the peace treaty they've been wanting for years, it wouldn't be much of a problem. Of course, then we would have one fewer excuse to maintain a couple hundred military bases across the globe.
Yeah, that's a great idea. Let's trust someone who will not only deny his own people basic human rights, but starves them to death by the millions as a matter of policy. Let's give him access to more military and financial assets as there's no possibility he will use them as he has used the assets he now possesses.
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Trust isn't necessary to start. We've got enough surveillance to see if they've taken a peaceful stance before signing a treaty. If it works, trust will grow and perhaps the country will stop being so paranoid and abusive.
Certainly the current strategy isn't doing any good for anyone but the military.
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Which is why we haven't signed a peace treaty with them.
"Certainly the current strategy isn't doing any good for anyone but the military."
The entire Korean peninsula is not embroiled in a bloodbath: civilians and neighbors benefit.
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Which is why we haven't signed a peace treaty with them.
You think they'd spontaneously demobilize and ask for a treaty? They have to ask before anything happens. Since they get no answer, they keep on acting the same way they always have, just like the US and her puppets.
Re:Good (Score:4, Funny)
It's just a reaction to North Korea dropping hot chicks from the sky: http://gizmodo.com/5580656/global-alarm-north-korea-now-has-flying-traffic-girls [gizmodo.com]
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Considering I could build one myself - yes I do think they have this capability.
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They have the engineering capability to build nukes and guided missles, and this seems trivial in comparison.
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They have the engineering capability to build nukes and guided missles, and this seems trivial in comparison.
All N. Korea has to do is underbid the electronics contract through a dummy corporation (location in some first or second world country) and S. Korea is pwnd.
Of course they do (Score:2)
This is all unfolding like a very, very bad NationStates roleplay.
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Until the robots decide that rather than killing each other for no reason, it would be in their best interest to band together against a common foe?
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That's why you install a separate chip that makes them want a lunar lander, with blackjack and hookers.
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Maybe the U.S./South Korea can deploy robots of our own and put less humans in harm's way.
You think some robots are going to get the US to withdraw from the Korean war? They've been fighting that one so long now it's become a bad habit.
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We already do. [digitaljournal.com]
Ok, ours don't have guns (probably), but they do fly.
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We already do. [digitaljournal.com]
Ok, ours don't have guns (probably), but they do fly.
Yet!
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which ... is what this story is about.
Re:Good (Score:5, Funny)
Spoken like a true Canadian.
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The episode in question was more about the balance of terror [wikipedia.org], with the terror taken out. (Yes, I know, "Balance of Terror [wikipedia.org]" was a different, and IMHO far superior episode. Try to keep on topic.)
A few killbots on a hostile border aren't Armageddon's heralds. Talk to me about Dead Hand [wikipedia.org] or other launch-on-warning or guaranteed retaliation automata and we'll have a good analogy to "A Taste of Armageddon [wikipedia.org]".
Fallout (Score:2, Troll)
Pictures? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pictures? (Score:5, Informative)
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I prefer to use my imagination. Currently it is Evil Otto (a bouncing happy face) from the game Berzerk, and a robotic voice is saying "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Stop the Intruder!"
Techwin! (Score:5, Informative)
This is that you want to see [youtube.com] - it shoots things near the end, the beginning is more a demo for the CnC GUI.
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But I noticed that it was a Samsung product. Is it going to get an upgrade to Froyo or are they going to have to stick with Eclair?
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- needs more processing, predictive hit boxes (Score:3, Interesting)
Target shooting shown is stationary.
In the video the hit boxes seem to lag a bit. Likely a processing lag. There needs to be a predictive part to get ahead of the processing lag so they can hit moving targets.
The Brannigan Counterstrategy (Score:5, Funny)
Nice try, but the North Koreans will just send wave after wave of their own men at the killbots until they reached their pre-programmed kill limit of 999,999.
Re:The Brannigan Counterstrategy (Score:5, Funny)
640 kills should be enough for anybody.
I am going to hell now.
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Nice (Score:2)
Right (Score:2)
Because I'm sure they're controlling these things via the Internet. Let's think about this a little bit - obviously these things would have to be controlled via encrypted comm links... or the North Koreans would root the bots. If J. Random Hacker wanted to play this game, he'd have to be... in the DMZ, which I doubt too many JRH's have the capability or interest to do.
DHS (Score:2)
Apparently the US Department of Homeland Security is looking into this technology - but they want to combine this with the phenomenon of Internet Hunting [howstuffworks.com] - they view this as a more expensive alternative to the highly-effective Drone Aircraft [latimes.com] in use in various theaters of operation...
I think they have it backwards (Score:4, Funny)
According to the article 'If the command centre operator cannot identify possible intruders through the robot's audio or video communications system, the operator can order it to fire its gun or 40mm automatic grenade launcher.
Wouldn't it make more sense to fire the guns and grenades if the operator does identify intruders?
"Hey, I don't see anybody around, FIRE THE GUNS!" and "Look, it's an intruder, CEASE FIRE!" doesn't make a lot of sense.
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depends on what you're trying to accomplish.
If the mission is to keep any North Korean from crossing the border, the apporach to "always fire, except if subject is identified as friendly" will yield better results than "only fire if subject is identified as enemy".
That's of course accepting the death of the odd sheep, shepherd or other friendly subject that fails to be identified correctly.
Just stay out of the DMZ!
"Detect" vs. "identify" (Score:2)
Ya know (Score:2)
If North Korea makes military robots, they are all going to look like Kim Jon'il.
Kimbots Transform!
North Korea was first (Score:5, Insightful)
North Korea deployed robots a long time ago. They are called North Koreans.
Goddamn Korean dupers, duping all the time (Score:2)
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when can we get these? (Score:2, Interesting)
when can we get these for the Mexican border?
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Wow, I can't belive this thread isn't full of this sort of comment, and likewise people whining about it.
FTR, this is exactly what I thought.
Obama to Arizona: Well, sorry, we just can't have you asking people where they are from and arresting them if they turn out to be illegals, but here have some of these fully automatic, shoot to kill border guards
You know, I was thinking, the border is huge, to big for an expensive wall. What if we made a system of highspeed wires, all driven from a few hubs. (think s
Unfortunately for South Korea (Score:2)
North Korea has Old Glory Robot Insurance [hulu.com]
Robots at the edge of DMZ, or in it? (Score:2)
DMZ = Demilitarized Zone... right? So, how is it still demilitarized if you place robots with tracking skills and guns in it? (I think it's already full of landmines anyway, but I'm just asking).
i need one of those (Score:2)
Erectin' a dispenser! (Score:2)
Unfortunately they forgot to build a dispenser, so now their team has no way of getting health and ammo as they move forward.
Damn incompetent engineers. They're nearly as bad as W+M1 pyros.
Oh boy... (Score:2, Funny)
best of luck (Score:2)
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It doesn't really matter what the west thinks about communism - NK is a theocracy now, with a god-king at the top and a caste system below. They started replacing marxism with the artificial Chuche-religion (more weird than Scientology, and probably as evil) in the seventies.
The only chance for NK is IMHO a internal enlightenment in parts of the leading junta (the only people there who know that there is a different world outside, and probably don't believe in the Chuche crap they made up for the ordinary
Been working on it a long time (Score:2)
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/14/0132216 [slashdot.org]
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/09/2319209 [slashdot.org]
Different? (Score:2)
Re:I sure hope that's a misprint. (Score:5, Informative)
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Nope they learned them in a real bloody and brutal war.
The DMZ is a no man's land. It is full of mines and signs telling you to keep out. Pretty much it is a kill or be killed situation.
Maybe you missed NK sinking a SK ship with a torpedo?
Do not go in the DMZ and you should be okay.
Well until NK pushes too hard or they figure they have nothing to lose. Or if they just snap. Or if they think the US will not intervene, Or they think China will intervene on their side. Or if the moon is full and the dictator i
Re:I sure hope that's a misprint. (Score:4, Informative)
There are all those things except the nuke drop (and the North may even be able to do that - but probably not). But you missed the most important part: tons and tons of mines, both anti-personnel and anti-armor.
Re:I sure hope that's a misprint. (Score:5, Informative)
...I'm surprised there aren't automated sentry guns, barb wire fencing, huge ditches, tall walls, flood lights, and a special "nuke" drop in case all shit hits the fan.
There are several of those things on the boarder.
On the South Korean side of the DMZ, I saw a very tall razor-wire fence, then a deep trench, then another large razor-wire fence on the other side of the trench. On every few fence poles their is either a floodlight, a camera, or a super sensitive microphone. Apparently, they can hear just about anything that moves on their side of the DMZ, then figure out the exact location from the delay between different microphones. Every 500 meters is a manned guard tower with a big-ass machine gun.
There is also a huge wall inside the DMZ, separating the two Koreas. SK says their isn't, but it is clearly visible from the North. (this knowledge is from a documentary video from another group of people, I refuse to go to the North myself, I do not want my dollars going to their government)
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Tactical nukes were available throughout the Cold War, with aircraft on standby ready to deliver them. A Nork invasion would have been a completely reasonable case for nuking North Korea and wiping out the Communist forces.
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Where is Waldo [youtube.com]?
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From Websters:
Robot ...
3. a mechanism guided by automatic controls
Robot is a vague term and it does not mean strictly autonomous. Using the autonomous definition the "robotic arm" on the shuttle is not robotic at all. But it most certainly is. It's a term used to describe more than one thing, autonomous and "remote manipulators" included.
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I believe that these things aim automatically, but require a command to fire. So technically they are partially autonomous.
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Why would it be a war crime? A predator pilot has a better picture of what's going on than a tank commander, a fighter pilot, or a Apache pilot. I suspect the same is true when you compare robots with high def cameras and guards in towers with binoculars and rifle sights.
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I always thought that it was a war crime to use robots in this fashion. It's great to keep people out of harms way when it's your people. But when the bots are on the other side it's a different story.
So you're saying when we do it, it's fine, but when any one else does it, that's a war crime? Do as I say, not as I do? By the way, we sided with South Korea on this one.
I'm not sure why you thought that (Score:2)
The military forces of the world have been using systems way more automated than this for a very long time. Examples:
The first two are given an approximate target location, launched, and told to kill any ship (submarine) they find there. The Phalanx is turned on and told to shoot any airborne object that meets certain threat criteria. All done completely autonomously, with no ability for a human to even countermand an attack d
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Reading just the subject of your post, I thought you were trying to change discussion to the movie Predators because there was nothing more to talk about in the field of autonomous killer robots.
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It's demilitarized in the sense that all the militarization of the area has occurred just outside of the zone. But, it has not just been demilitarized, it's been de-humanized, in that people don't go there unless they have a deathwish.
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It means "forbidden to military forces", which exclusion is enforced by mining around it and shooting those who try to cross it.
The term isn't "bizarre" at all, nor is it Newspeak
"Demilitarized" doesn't mean "happy wank land where peaceful ponies fart rainbows", it means "a No Man's Land" barrier between enemies where intrusion is lawfully stopped by violence. No military units are allowed to operate in it without agreement between both nations. Shooting into is not the same thing as being in it.
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I'm fine with the -1 offtopic...but no one has gotten the reference? Sad Panda :*(
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I 'got' the reference, Doug was awesome back in the day, one of the original Nicktoons, etc etc
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:-) It's all right, I'll usually try to post +5 insightful or informative posts for a few days, then just act like a dick for a day or two. It's fun :-) I still have yet to dip below "Excellent" Karma since I first hit it though, so ::shrug:: I must be doing something right.
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Do you mean "One Step Closer"?
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The Norks cross into China, not generally over the DMZ. Defending SK is so vital that a few dead Nork border jumpers are literally trivial.
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well, I don't even see how to put a gun in my router... Well I guess I could, but I don't see how it will stop remote hackers !
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Perhaps TFA's title shouldn't say "in" then...