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1. • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
   • CommentTimeApr 14th 2008

    (1782.1)

   A simple wave of the hand outside the window triggers the alarm's motion detectors and sets off a song-like warning. An automated voice warns there is an intruder.
   
   The contraption then calls Molavizadeh's cell phone. He says he can receive the automated warning from up to four miles away.
   
   He shouts "Hello, who are you?" into his phone, and the sound of his voice is transmitted and broadcast through the alarm box.
   
   If that's not enough to stop a would-be burglar, he says, then remote-firing the Kalashnikov attached to the wooden box should do the trick.

   
   
   http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89543773
   
   Not sure what to add to this.
   
   Althoughit does bear out my view that US battlefield robots will be rapidly followed by locally-manufactured ones.
2. •  
     CommentAuthorAdam
   • CommentTimeApr 14th 2008

    (1782.2)
   And the sooner we have domestic killbots, the better.
3. •  
     CommentAuthoroldhat
   • CommentTimeApr 14th 2008

    (1782.3)
   Of all the inventors to compare this man to, they chose DOC BROWN???
4. •  
     CommentAuthorUnsub
   • CommentTimeApr 14th 2008

    (1782.4)
   I'm having a time out until I can learn some manners.
   We have already had robots killing humans in Afghanistan when some clever boffins attached a bomb to a predator drone.
   I saw it as one of those pivotal moments that is only noticed until much later. This elderly couple in Florida had been robbed by crackheads several times and the old guy got pissed and set up a 12 gauge to go off when someone opened the window. It killed a convicted burglar and the old man was charged with murder. Ironically if he had pulled the trigger himself he would probably beatthe charge. Persoanally I think if you beak into another man's(or woman's) home you should lose your protection under the law.
5. •  
     CommentAuthorScottBieser
   • CommentTimeApr 15th 2008

    (1782.5)
   The state has always taken a dim view of booby-traps. I'm not crazy about them myself. Too much chance they could hurt or kill someone undeserving. I'm all for having a human brain rather than an a.i. or some mechanical contraption making a choice to pull a trigger.
6. •  
     CommentAuthorZ
   • CommentTimeApr 15th 2008

    (1782.6)
   <strong>@ScottBieser</strong>
   
   Good point.
7. • CommentAuthorTechnocratJT
   • CommentTimeApr 16th 2008 edited

    (1782.7)
   Unsub, Spring-gun cases are rather rare to say the least.
   
   This would be the seminal one:Katko v. Briney, and it was breaking into a uninhabited cabin to steal worthless junk. It was also a civil torts case and did not result in a either death or a related murder charge. Since I can't say I am aware of one which invovles a sympathetic elderly couple, multiple "crackheads," their actual home, and with the result you describe...do you perhaps have a cite?
8. • CommentAuthorOddcult
   • CommentTimeApr 16th 2008

    (1782.8)
   The missile aremed Predator drones don't really count, as there's still a person in the loop aiming and firing.
   
   The really critical turning point will be when a robot identifies a previously unknown object or person as a threat and fires on its own, according to its programming. That'll be quite different even from telling something to, for example, blast everything not broadcasting an IFF signal, as that's already fairly well implemented with a few AA systems.