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154 Modern Robotics

brain to engage in higher-level behavior such as planning. “Elma”
is a sleeker, more sophisticated successor to Walter that includes
tactile sensors to allow the legs to “feel” the terrain and adjust to it.
As the project continued, researchers also added learning routines
to help Elma master new skills.
Learning through feedback is the featured activity for a swarm
of wheeled robots that also inhabits the lab at Reading. (Since there
were originally seven of the robots, they were dubbed “The Seven
Dwarfs.”) Each robot has two powered wheels and one front wheel
that is like a caster. The sturdy little robots emphasized rapid activ-
ity rather than cautious exploration.

“Hello, Mr. Chip”

As interesting as the robotics research at the University of Reading
was, by the late 1990s, Kevin Warwick had become increasingly
preoccupied with a more daring possibility—that of connecting the
human body directly to the cybernetic world of increasingly intel-
ligent machines. He would become his own research subject.
In August 1998, Warwick arranged to have a small silicon chip,
about one inch (2.5 cm) long and a tenth of that wide implanted in
his arm. The procedure, performed under a local anesthetic, took
only about 15 minutes.
There was little remarkable about the chip itself—similar chips
have been implanted in pets for years, where they serve to identify
strays. What was significant was the way computers in Warwick’s
building at the university had been programmed to recognize and
respond to the chip. As Warwick walked, lights came on, doors
opened, and computers displayed his home Web page. Warwick also
heard the greeting “Hello, Mr. Warwick, you have mail.”
Warwick told PC World reporter Jana Sanchez-Klein that he was
surprised how quickly he got used to being connected in this way:

I’m feeling more at one with the computer. It’s as though part of me
is missing when I’m not in the building. In my house, I have to open
doors and turn on lights. I don’t feel lonely, but I don’t feel complete.