Virtobot may be helping humanity now, but it'll know all our weaknesses when Skynet achieves sentience. That's because it's the world's first autopsy robot - and it can examine a dead body inside and out without ever lifting a scalpel.


The University of Bern's Virtobot uses MRIs and computer tomography to take a 3D snapshot of a cadaver. That allowing doctors to examine bodies without cutting into them, as well as preserve forensic data for years. The press release for Virtobot explains how the machine captures a 3D picture of the body:

In the Virtopsy laboratory, it projects a light bar onto the corpse being examined. The imaged body contours are recorded in high definition using a digital stereo camera. At the same time, the Virtobot images the texture of the skin. "Then we harmonise these surface images with the three-dimensional CR data of the entire body", explains Lars Ebert, who programmed Virtobot as part of the National Centres of Competence in Research, Co-Me. Forensic doctors are thus provided with a high-precision, three-dimensional image of the body and can examine it on-screen from all angles, both externally and internally.


And here's a video of Virtobot in action:

Perhaps the best part of Virtobot is the fact that it's totally mute. This prevents it from spouting such nonsense diagnoses as "death by broken heart."

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[via Medgadget]