When robots take selfies

„People take selfies with smartphones and digital cameras (or even with flying robots), and share them on social media, blogs, microblogs and image platforms for social purposes, and though selfies may just be a trend, they say a lot about the narcissism of people and the zeitgeist of the media age.“ Mit diesen Worten beginnt ein Artikel von Oliver Bendel, der am 9. Juni 2014 auf Robohub erschienen ist. Es geht um Roboter, die Selfies machen, um die Frage, warum sie dies tun (und warum sie dies in Zukunft noch mehr tun werden). Mit diesen unveröffentlichten Zeilen kann man sich auf die Selfies besonderer Art einstimmen: „In 2012, Curiosity impressed us with high definition and complex beauty. A Martian mountain rises behind the robot. On the dusty ground we note the tire imprints. According to the author of that article, the photo on the website was taken by one of the robot’s arms. A selfie par excellence. An earlier Mars discovery vehicle had to rely on a few tricks. The camera of Viking 2 is installed fix but can benefit from the difference in altitude. Almost intimate regions are disclosed. No wonder – this was back in the year of 1976. The robots showed their favorite side not only on the Mars. They took selfies also on Venus, Venera 13 gave one example in 1982. In the background we see the planet that used to be called Lucifer in the past. Today, it is still greeted as morning star or evening star, depending on the time of day. The part of the machine visible between the camera and the rocky surface seems like an aureole or a sprocket. It is the teethed landing apparatus that has come into sight almost by accident. Hayabusa chose a particularly beautiful version in 2005. When the vehicle reached the potato-shaped asteroid Itokawa it had the sun in its back. It lost no time and captivated its shadow which reminds us of the Japanese flag or a Roman catamaran from the Punic Wars.“

Fig.: When people take selfies