Droid (robot)

Droids are fictional robots, often possessing artificial intelligence, most commonly referred to as such in the science fiction franchise Star Wars. Created by special effects worker John Stears, the term is a clipped form of android, a word originally reserved for robots designed to look and act like a human. The word droid is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd.

First usage

The term Droid was first used in a 1952 sci-fi story by Mari Wolf, "Robots of the World! Arise!", published in "If Worlds of Science Fiction", July 1952.

"Jack shook his head. "It's crazy. They're swarming all over Carron City. They're stopping robots in the streets--household Robs, commercial Droids, all of them."

Star Wars

The Star Wars franchise features a variety of droids fulfilling roles. The humanoid robot C-3PO is a "protocol droid", which specialize in translation, etiquette and customs; R2-D2 is an "astromech droid", which are "utility robots generally used for the maintenance and repair of starships and related technology"; and HK-47 is a humanoid soldier robot designed as a violent killer.

Trademark use

The term "Droid" has been used by Verizon Wireless under licence from Lucasfilm, for their line of smartphones based on the Android operating system. Motorola's late-2009 Google Android-based cell phone is called the Droid. This line of phone has been expanded to include other Android-based phones released under Verizon, including the HTC Droid Eris, the HTC Droid Incredible, Motorola Droid X, Motorola Droid 2, and Motorola Droid Pro. The term was also used for the Lucasfilm projects EditDroid, a non-linear editing system, and SoundDroid, an early digital audio workstation.

See also

• Battle droid

External links

• Astromech Droids in the Official StarWars.com Encyclopedia
• "Astromech droid" on Wookieepedia
• Which Star Wars droid would NASA take to space?