Mute the video as I find the music to be corny. But the robots presented here are pretty cool. We’ve definitely come a long way in respects to AI and it won’t be long before we have a robotic nanny.
Hey, they have a robotic donkey already, who balances really well even though you gave it a kick in the ass. :P
Who needs this:
when you can have this:
But check out that cool ball thrower, you never need to play with your dog again. Although, that kinda defeats the purpose of having a dog if you’re too lazy to care for it. That includes playing with it, moran.
I have an aversion to toys that talk back. I think of Chucky, that evil doll who came alive when a criminal who has the craft, transfered his soul into the doll before he died from a gunshot wound after being chased by the police. And that evil doll…haunts me till today. “hi my name is chucky!”, before its face scrounged up into an evil grin.
Anyway this video is about a talking doll that interacts with you through 7 motion sensors. Check it out:
No it’s not some new superhero from Marvel Comics. It’s just…Dacky, the new robotic dog that looks much closer to a real dog than AiBo. It looks real cute too! I absolutely have to give it that. Dacky has a 6 sensors within its cute little self and can learn up to 650 words. So aside from barking and expressing its cute plastic big eyes, it can also greet you with greetings like “good morning”, “how are you?”, “thank god it’s friday”, etc.
Why are they to the rescue? Well, they are pets, not real pets but they aim to function as one. And research have shown that people with pets come out happier than those who done. So all of you who would like to have a pet but are not willing to commit to picking up no.2’s and all that shenanigans, maybe Dacky’s just for you.
This invention is a Tomy Takara invention. He’s shipping these puppies to the US it seems.
Source: Engadget
Asimo, the robot designed by Honda that appears at more events than an out-of-work B-grade actress, has had a tumble. Here is a video of the demonstration where Asimo tries to walk up a staircase but falls backwards instead, to loud gasps from the audience.
Yes, Asimo is still talking to the audience as he/she/it goes down. Did you notice how the robot seemed to hesitate before going up the stairs? Must’ve know what was coming.
What got me about the video was how the rescue crew brought out a screen and hid the accident scene, almost as if the robot was a real accident victim. It probably was an expensive accident.
Poor lil’ Asimo. Genki de, ne?
Japan has the second oldest population in the world (after Italy). Some 25% of the population is over the age of 65. Also, this year, the population of Japan declined for the first time. The aging society is becoming a major problem in Japan. So it’s nice to hear stories like this one.
Tokyo University (known colloquially as “Todai”) and a consortium of seven companies will work together over the next 10-15 years to develop robots (yes, robots! Hurray for robots!) aimed at helping Japan’s elderly population.
The project is expected to cost up to 1 billion yen and it is hoped that there will be robots to do light cleaning, stack shelves and even carry people through busy intersections. Because Japan’s workforce is shrinking, it is hoped that these robots will take on the unwanted tasks of the greying population, as well as providing basic care.
The technology is excpected to be used in other areas as well. Yay! Soon I’ll have a robot to clean my room!
Link:
Pink Tentacle
There is this security robot called “Artemis”, made by Tmsuk and designed to attack criminals with smoke and fluorescent-ink balls. They received the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and even made a web page about this visit on their website.
The only glitch is that the robot took the PM for a bad guy and started using its
smoke on him. Amusing. Watch the video here.
Well, the Yahoo News article has been removed, which made me realize how old this news is. But better late then never when it comes to very futuristic science-fiction, because by the time it is posted here on 3Yen, its coming into reality retail will still be very far away in years to come. Hopefully I am wrong…
In this AFP news, a “robot suit” built by a team at the Tsukuba University could soon be the solution for workers to lift heavy loads or people with disabilities to climb stairs. This exoskeleton weighs 15 kilogram, is battery-powered, and works by detecting muscle movements and amplifying them. It can also move by itself, to help elderly or handicapped people walk.
Of course, the prototype will be displayed at the Aichi World Exposition. If you go to Aichi, please send us a note.
As always with articles about robotics, there was a mention of the need for such technology here, because of the fact that elderly are becoming increasingly numerous in Japan and the young doctors expected to take care of them getting scarcer. They mentioned figures from a government report saying that pensioners “made up a record 19.5 percent of the country’s population in 2004 and that the ratio will grow rapidly, surpassing 35 percent in 2050″.
The coolest things about Engadget are their “How-to” tutorials (or so I believe, at least). Vince Veneziani published new one recently on “how to get the most out of your Sony Aibo“. He says:
What a lot of people don’t know, is how far you can push your Aibo to the limit. From their built in cameras to WiFi capabilities, the Aibo is the perfect tool for someone trying to get the most out of technology.
Well, it’s not really a “How-to” guide as such, but still, it is a fun read (if you have an Aibo, or if you plan to get one someday).
On a related news (and still from Engadget), the good people at Sony have developed new prototype Aibo to show “curiosity” and to teach themselves new functions that they have not already been programmed to do.
Researchers are calling the algorithm a sort of “metabrain” that gives the mechanical dogs a self-awareness of their own learning system, such that the robots would seek new and more challenging tasks after having mastered initial, smaller tasks.
Of course, it will take years before this feature gets into commercial models, but it’s one more step toward the science-fiction we’ve seen in movie. Soon, your flying car!
Apparently, the reason why Osaka is pushing to become the robot capital of Japan is that there is a law in Tokyo (or is it Kanto in general) that forbids robots to wander in the streets, while there is no such law in Osaka (or Kansai, not sure). When you take into consideration the overall aging population of Japan, and the negative reproduction rate that makes it even worse, it is only fair to expect that robots will be replacing humans sooner or later for elderly care and such. So I guess Osaka might be the place to invest in a couple of years.
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