It seems that even Thing from “The Addams Family” isn’t safe from being replaced by machines.
A team of researchers at ETH Zurich’s Soft Robotics Lab have created an anthropomorphic robotic hand that can walk around on its fingertips, all on its own. So dexterous is our disembodied perambulator that it can navigate multiple surfaces and even clack away at a keyboard while supporting its own weight, footage of its exploits shows.
It’s kind of adorable when you watch it in action, like as it plays a game on a computer. But there’s a somewhat creepy, arachnid quality to its twitchy gait — and it’s also, perhaps, reminiscent of a sci-fi horror film’s killer robot that refuses to die even when its body is destroyed. (See also: metamachines.)
Besides haunting a final girl from the grave, an autonomous hand could have some practical applications, the researchers say.
