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Domain: kokoro-dreams.co.jp
Stories and comments across the archive that link to kokoro-dreams.co.jp.
Comments · 6
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Robot names for mere cell phones
Cell phone makers are using robotic names, and even imagery, for yet another brick with a display. It's getting late for that. Robotics is moving along rapidly now, and there are humanoid "androids" and worker "droids" in small-scale production.
These aren't one-off prototypes. The Kokoro Actroid Der2 is being used by Sanrio, the company behind Hello Kitty and other cuteness. Willow Robotics' mobile utility robot is just now going into small scale production. A few years from now, robotic names for mere cell phones will sound stupid.
(A previous dumb step in that direction was "MicroPhone", a misnamed Macintosh modem program distributed before the Mac had much audio capability.)
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Doubtful
There is a few reasons why I doubt the usefulness of this robot.
1) To develop an "android" with "human-like" combative movements is unlikely at this point in time. The Actroid shown in the videos here is quite advanced in mimicing human motions, but the movements are very jerky and the motor control is very obvious.
2) The previous point leads to another problem. Training with a mechnical dummy is detrimental to gaining actual combat experience. The "android" will , no doubt, move in a series of jerky movements predefined by state machines. A human fighter flows from one move to another. The android can't help replicate real combat unless it has physics and advanced algorithms programmed into it. Also, the android shown in the picture seems to be stationary. Boxing and martial arts is very dynamic, so the android serves more like a game than a serious combat trainer.
3) The article claims that the android can dodge punches. I say that it can't. It takes a fist less than a quarter of a second to travel from the ready position to the opponent's face. The microprocessor needs to do image processing to realize that the fist is moving towards a specific area, which will require many image frames before it can actually determine the fist movements. And even if the microprocessor was able to act fast enough, I haven't seen any motors that can rotate fast enough.
4) Cost. A stepping side-kick has tremedous amount of force. If a kick can knock a human 10 feet back, I doubt that the android can sustain its working condition after numerous attacks. When it breaks down, how much would it cost to get it serviced? -
Videos & pictures of the ladies in action
Was wondering when this was going to appear on Slashdot.
When I first saw this on another site, I did a bit of surfing around and found the Kokoro-Dreams site that has a few pictures and (more importantly) videos of the ladies in action.
All but one of these is in WMV format and the other is a Real Media file. I would have Coral-Cached this whole site, but they've implemented some nasty referer checking and it won't work.
So instead, I Cached the individual video files for your enjoyment:
http://www.kokoro-dreams.co.jp.nyud.net:8090/WMV/a ctroid-mc/actroid-mc.wmv (3.7 MB)
http://www.kokoro-dreams.co.jp.nyud.net:8090/WMV/a ctroid-info/actroid-info.wmv (2.9 MB)
http://www.kokoro-dreams.co.jp.nyud.net:8090/realm ovie/actroid/actroid-hi.rm (5 MB)
http://www.kokoro-dreams.co.jp.nyud.net:8090/WMV/a ctroid-der/actroid_der.wmv (13.7 MB)
There's also this Japanese PDF file (not many pictures):
http://www.kokoro-dreams.co.jp.nyud.net:8090/ng/ac troid/20050319_aichi_expo2/actroid.pdf (940 KB)
If you're interested in surfing around the original Japanese site, you can do so here:
http://www.kokoro-dreams.co.jp/ -
video clips of Japanese life-like robot
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video clips of Japanese life-like robot
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video clips of Japanese life-like robot