ASTAR

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ASTAR is a fictional golden humanoid robot. The character was created in the 1980s by H. Clifford Chadderton for the Canadian amputee charitable organization The War Amps and is featured in material for their PLAYSAFE program to educate children about safety. [1]

Humanoid Something that has an appearance resembling a human without actually being one

A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human without actually being one. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans. By the 20th century, the term came to describe fossils which were morphologically similar, but not identical, to those of the human skeleton.

Robot A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.

A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer— capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. Robots can be guided by an external control device or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be constructed on the lines of human form, but most robots are machines designed to perform a task with no regard to their aesthetics.

Hugh Clifford "Cliff" Chadderton, was a Canadian World War II veteran and Chief Executive Officer of The War Amps.

The original televised segment featured a performer in an elaborate costume as ASTAR performing acrobatic stunts in a world full of dangerous machines. After evading various threats such as electrical hazards and moving blades, ASTAR eventually makes a mistake causing his arm to be amputated by a large rotating saw. He then picks up his severed arm and reattaches it with ease. The segment ends with ASTAR giving the warning: "I am ASTAR, a robot. I can put my arm back on. You can't. So play safe!"

The above warning is now part of Canadian popular culture for those who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. In a 2000 remake of the segment produced with computer graphics, ASTAR had a higher voice, and his warning is altered slightly, with ASTAR noting that he is "a robot from Planet Danger." ASTAR was phased out of War Amps advertising in the 2000s in favour of commercials featuring and appearances by real children who had suffered amputations, but was featured in their PLAYSAFE program and as an optional icon for their address label service as recently as November 2013.

Popular culture is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of the practices, beliefs and objects that are dominant or ubiquitous in a society at a given point in time. Popular culture also encompasses the activities and feelings produced as a result of interaction with these dominant objects. Heavily influenced in modern times by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of people in a given society. Therefore, popular culture has a way of influencing an individual's attitudes towards certain topics. However, there are various ways to define pop culture. Because of this, popular culture is something that can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways by different people across different contexts. It is generally viewed in contrast to other forms of culture such as folk culture, working-class culture, or high culture, and also through different theoretical perspectives such as psychoanalysis, structuralism, postmodernism, and more. The most common pop-culture categories are: entertainment, sports, news, politics, fashion, technology, and slang.

Computer graphics Graphics created using computers

Computer graphics is the discipline of generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great deal of specialized hardware and software has been developed, with the displays of most devices being driven by computer graphics hardware. It is a vast and recently developed area of computer science. The phrase was coined in 1960 by computer graphics researchers Verne Hudson and William Fetter of Boeing. It is often abbreviated as CG, or typically in the context of film as CGI.

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References

  1. King, Andrew (August 16, 2014). "Astar the robot turns 30: War Amps safety icon was born in Ottawa". Ottawa Citizen . Postmedia Network . Retrieved June 24, 2017.