I Got To Play in Who-ville

Yesterday morning I got to do something that I'll probably never get the opportunity to do again. In fact, there are probably not a lot of people on the planet that get to do it, so I feel really lucky.

I got to play with a robot. Not the Johnny 5 kind of robot in Short Circuit, but a robot used to operate on people. To be honest, this robot probably never reached its two robotic hands into a human or used its third arm to peer inside a chest. It was a robot used to train doctors.

I was on a special tour of a facility and we got to try this robot surgeon out. Its used in all kind of less invasive procedures. One part of it was a large machine that sat next to the patient. It had three arms: two to hold various tools and one to control the camera. The other part of the machine was where a doctor sat. He or she would put his or her head into a view finder and see what the camera was seeing magnified ten times. . .in 3-D. As the doctor sits there, he or she places his or her hands on top of two controlling mechanisms that are intuitive--meaning whatever move the doctor makes, the robotic arms mimic.


When I got to sit at the machine, the camera was set upon a tiny area of colored foam protrusions. There was a penny in the midst of the protrusions that looked HUGE in comparison. We could use the hands to pick up the penny and then use them to pick up even smaller rings and move them from one brightly colored glob to another. The doctor told us that the small area we worked on was nicknamed "Who-ville" in homage to Dr. Seuss.

It was truly one of the neatest things I've done in my life. To be honest, a few years back I probably would've passed on the opportunity, afraid any lack of ability I had might affect my cool status. Now I'm smart enough to know that I'm not cool at all and therefor can make a fool of myself at will for a good experience. And this was definitely a noteworthy experience.