PhoneBot uses an old $50 Android smartphone brain with its cameras as eyes — tech Frankenstein is an open source humanoid robot platform for makers
THE SO WHAT
A $400, smartphone-powered humanoid from UCLA is a reminder that the real constraint on physical AI is software and data, not exotic hardware. For operators, this points to a near-future where low-cost, modular platforms let you prototype task-specific robots in-house instead of waiting on premium humanoid vendors.
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