Honda's ASIMO A Few Steps Closer To Human

Rauchenator points to an article on Yahoo! about "the new enhanced Honda Asimo which now can gracefully walk down stairs, respond to human commands and even work like a receptionist (Sit there). The Honda site even has videos showcasing the robot doing its thing. The article points out that the robot makes celebrity-size salaries when put on display, too."

Comments

Eliza

[waimate]

Asked to turn around at a press briefing, Asimo responded in a neutral, if somewhat monotone, voice: ``What do you want?'' while raising a hand and moving some fingers

Remember the old Eliza program which pretended to carry on a conversation? Same algorithm - if you've got absolutely no frappin' idea, just say something non-commital. Fools most of the people most of the time.

the future?

[invisible]

Honda has invested more than 100M dolars to get to Asimo. It walks. Now it even responds to human commands. In about 10 years it will be able to get you a beer. That in it self may seem like trivial, but once it can help you with 'simple' things, it can do things like nursing. Japan has aging population. 25% of Japan's population will be over 65. That's 40M. Nursing care is expensive (especially since Japan doesn't import foreign workers). Robots like Asimo could take care of 'simple' things. Once in mass production its cost would be in range of a good car (later even less). Would you like a janitor, cook, housemaid, gardner, fireman, guard, babysitter, courier, butler.... for a price of a car?