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Sony's New Bi-Pedal Robot
TestBoy writes "Sony is releasing a new bipedal robot for home use. It has a 60,000 word vocabulary and can even sing songs." I am especially amused by the photograph of synchronized dancing
robots, and the fact that the new bot will cost as much as a luxury car! But
it has some impressive stuff like facial recognition
See, now if Sony can make a Playstation that sings to you when your playing that'd be awsome =]
I sure hope all the songs it sings are properly licensed.
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
If a robot can sing, it's gotta sing "Daisy."
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Hmmmm. So. It can do 6E4 different jobs? But can it be voice controlled? That's what I want, a robot with a 60,000 word vocabulary.
Best Slashdot Co
Name it Hal. Then I'll start referring to my house as my pod. Then I'll come home everynight, and say "Open the pod bay door Hal!". Then I'll giggle insanely! It'll never ever stop being funny! :)
It's nice to see this kind of development, but does it bother anyone that it's all Sony/Mitsubishi?
We've got plenty of bright people in this country, but we don't make things like this.
We can't afford to fall behind in robot development.
These are not the droids I'm looking for.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I wonder when they will merge robotic technology with the Realdoll line. Bring your dreams only made in movies to life! Or, possibly, too much life if the bitch takes over and electrocutes you ;)
Now I can re-enact this scene
I've always wanted a pet robot, now I can feel like it's really the future.
Starsucks
So they will be affordable in my lifetime.
This is just too cool. All the Asimov I read growing up and to be honest I never thought I would personally own a robot.
Sure I wont be able to afford one of these. But I can remember when my dad couldn't afford a digital watch or calculator.
The expensive, limited units today. The cheap, multifunctional units tomorrow.
This is cool!
.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Ok, Here's the link to the new Honda Asimo -- THe page is in Japanese, but the photos are good.
--
Vote for your hopes, not for your fears - Vote Third Party
...Robin Williams. And I'll bet you thought I was going to say Roblimo. Actually, I didn't think The Bicentennial Man was *that* bad, but I just wish they'd stuck a little Susan Calvin footage in.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Sony's not the only company attempting to recreate Pinocchio. It'll face competition from ZMP Inc's "Pino" robot.
Question: Who will get the Disney deal first?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Hmm.. how long will it take someone to mod one with a chainsaw and a flame thrower and use it as a battle bot? :)
(This Space For Rent)
for the pr0n industry! Dress it in high-heels (it could handle uneven sufaces, right?) and a corset and you have the gadget-lovers dream partner!
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Didn't the old school HERO Jr Robot sing DAISY? It also sung about a bicycle built for 2. i borrowed a friend of mine's HERO about 10 years ago, and it couldn't go 10 feet without getting stuck on nothing, proclaming "help! help!". That robot drove the dogs nuts.
In this article there's some extra technical information, like the fact that it has 2 64-bit RISC processors and runs the Apertos Operating System (now called Aperios).
Signatures are supposed to be funny?
Yaskawa Electric Corp., which supplies robots to auto assembly lines, has developed a $105,000 bed-shaped robot that can help rehabilitation patients who need to strengthen their legs.
Sounds like Roujin Z to me. Roujin Z is a very funny anime by Katsuhiro Ôtomo, the director of the famous Akira. In the anime the story follows an old man in a new hightech bed, that is made to care for him. You can read a much longer review here.
Jan
Now it can walk my AIBO at 6:00 in the morning.
60k words? ... not too many people have a spoken vocabulary that large.
Humans don't really need thousands of words to communicate. Some spoken languages have about 1000 words; others have fewer than 150. Indian Sign Language has about 200 words in common use.
Will I retire or break 10K?
It's your responsibility to make sure your robot violates no copyright laws when singing.
"I like to wear big boy pants."
There wouldn't be a return in cash terms within 2-3 years so they aren't going to be interested.
Deleted
Sony employee: ah Mr Microsoft exhibitor, allow me to introduce our latest model bipedal *hunter-killer* robot, fresh from our development labs...
Robot: is there a problem here ?
MS employee: erm, on second thoughts, just carry on as you were...
I just want the technology to progress to the point where I can get a "Teddy" from AI.
I can't see something as expensive as a car becoming especially popular, but it's great to think about what might evolve from these little dudes in a few years' time. Five or so years from now they'll probably be down to a few thousand dollars and ten times as intelligent. I can see them being used for things like domestic maintenance, helping the elderly and disabled, going into dangerous environments, they could even have military applications.
:-)
Plus, it's just be cool to have one in the server room to reboot boxes for us, and make coffee
Entertainment robots are fine....I'm sure I would love to have one. But the company who develops the first robot that can: do the dishes, mow the lawn, and vacuum the floor will change the world. I don't care if it can sing or not.
Kind thoughts do not change the world
How long will it be before we have "bot bands" taking on the charts? Move over NSYNC bring on the "Backstreet Bots".
Insanity is just a state of mind.
It may have a 60000 word vocabulary, but 30000 of the words are "beedy-beedy-beedy"
And the optional computer to translate for you is another $60k.
www.eFax.com are spammers
I sure hope all the songs it sings are properly licensed.
Not to worry - the ever-thinking engineers at Sony have taken that problem into consideration. Your robot will come with a credit card reader and a cell-phone so that it can charge the appropriate royalties to your card on a per-incident basis... In the event that the cell network is down, the robot is equipped with a redundant payment system: there is a coin slot so that you can make your payments on-the-spot.
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
Sony released a prototype calld SDR-3X some time ago. You can see an article of it and video here.
"For that, the robot has sensors on the bottom of its feet to help it walk on uneven surfaces such as carpeting and has been programmed to tumble without falling apart and then get up on its own, Doi said."
...
...
:)
er, scuse me mr doi, but how do you program it not to fall apart when it falls over?
if(robot->sensor.overload && robot->falling)
{
robot->say("danger, danger, get the hell out my way!");
robot->donotfallapart = true;
}
hmm
"So there he is, risen from the dead. Like that fella, E. T." - Father Ted Crilly
For the price of a luixury car IMO it better have "3 functioning inputs".
Sony meets RealDoll?
60k words aren't that many for a robot living in Japan. 60k words are about as much vocabulary as you would need to say "I want to get some ice cream" in japanese, though saying "very much hello person who is above me in the social stature and introduced by a lower co-worker" takes about two.
When these things can read Kanji, then I'll be impressed.
The ______ Agenda
I agree with the bed shaped robot bit... that cought my eye.
However, I did also want to tell you that the robots at the museum are not increadably responsive. They react to a predefined set of movements, and they are neat to look at, but the fact is, if you have to learn how to use it, and it can't do anything of it's own volision... it's still a tool/toy. They are not fully moble bipeds like the artical would lead you to believe
I guess that would be handy for relaying messages from different parts of the house where you couldn't be heard, but I can't imagine the conversation depth getting much further than Dr. Sbaitso with a better frequency range.
OTOH, It does have a photographic memory and some command of communication. If Sony would add a cash recognition device, beefed up the SDR-4X's carrying capacity, and pepped up it's mobility in some way, this thing would be great for doing beer runs!
/*drunk.. fix later*/
Sony should make this guy a PSX peripheral. Then I can compete against this little guy in Dance Dance Revolution.
-prator
Rock'em Sock'em Robots, baby!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
In college anthropology, I was taught that the average _human_ vocabulary is 40,000 words.
I know a computer can store thousands of words in its RAM or ROM, but calling that a vocabulary is overstretching the point. "Vocabulary" implies comprehension.
I'll wager this robot can't tell its nouns from most of verbs.
I wonder if this is what being a god is like. Does she laugh at the pointlessness of it all too? Will Sony make an SDR-5X that makes little robots out of Mindstorms?
The ______ Agenda
I don't even want it to "welcome" me when I come home.
You mean you don't want it to say "Home again home again jiggedy-jig. Good evening J.F." and bump into the wall tragi-comedically?
"Information wants to be paid"
Sony Robot + RealDoll = Robotics' killer app.
You have been warned.
I mean, yeah, it's cool and all, but remember where it comes from.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
In college anthropology, I was taught that the average _human_ vocabulary is 40,000 words.
This is the "average" vocabulary. If I were dropping $50k on a toy to interact with, I would not want to talk to someone/something with an average vocabulary. The average college grad has approx a 60-80k word vocabulary and the average doctoral grad has approx 80k-120k word vocabulary.
The problem with defining vocabulary however is defining what counts as a real word. Is a vocabulary word one that someone uses properly, or perhaps one that will be understood in some sort of contextual paradigm but not be easily to define?
Additionally, I would be interested to see what is defined as active versus passive uses words in the vocabulary.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
So now all we need is our own Gungan army.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
The article mentions that the robot, if tipped, is programmed to fall in such a way as to minimize damage. Does it tuck and roll, I wonder? I'd love to see a video of that!
**>>BELCH
Moral of the story: If you want a polite society that values automation and small consumer electronics, put some people on an island with no natural resources, but good trading links, and let simmer for 2500 years.
Prediction: Our first space colonies will have red circles on the sides of their spaceships, not stars.
This was a part from the German ARD afternoon news. The video speaks for itself, even if you don't understand the German commentary.
I wonder if Sony has plans on allowing the Aibo and SDR-4X to be controlled or programmed using the PS2? That would be pretty cool. You could use the PS2 to track them and download songs, etc, etc. Heck you could even play against SDR, now that would be serious cool. Definitely brings up some interesting possibilities.
This new humanoid unit seems to be an upgrade of the Aibo technology. I'm curious to see how good the balance control is.
I'm a Barbie girl in a barbie world
life in plastic, it's fantastic.
You can brush my hair, undress me anywhere...
make Linux, not Microsoft. sin(beast) = -0.809016994374947424102293417182819
and gets rid of annoying door to door salesman, Then I'll buy one.
make Linux, not Microsoft. sin(beast) = -0.809016994374947424102293417182819
If the robot is capable of violating copyright by singing Styx's "Mr. Roboto", and Sony made it, aren't they responsible for creating a device which can be used to circumvent copyright?
Sick the DMCA on them, see how *they* like it.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
I'll name mine Marvin, and keep it's batteries low, so it can always feel depressed.
"Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased. Thus we refute entropy" - Spider Robinson
Already been implemented...check out RealDoll's site.
;-)
Other enhancements currently available:
1. Interactive sensory response system: This system is composed of sensors embedded in the Realdoll's breasts, vaginal and anal entries. The doll is connected via an ethernet cable (up to 100') to your PC, and when the various sensors are triggered by activity, the doll will respond with sensor specific audio. The software will run on any Windows based PC, and is completely user editable; The directories for each sensor can be editied to the user's taste by adding or subtracting specific audio files. This system is currently offered in limited quantity. Please check with us for availablity if you are interested in adding this option to your order. The price for this option is currently $1500.00
Fascinating, the things they can do with technology...
DennyK
Or even better, be able to spout out mnemonic devices for Kanji. My Japanese textbook's got some really good ones:
For KIN/chika (near/nearby), the mnemonic device is "With this huge caterpillar near, you'll need an axe to protect yourself!"
--
"Everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around." - They Might Be Giants, "We Want a Rock"
Christmas is almost upon us (never too early to start the advertising blitz) and it's time to figure out what kind of totally useless gimick those people with $50,000 burning a hole in their pocket (don't we all?) can get their kids for Christmas. Now, do they get a 2' tall robot, or ten Segways?
With a 60k word vocabulary, if it could write, we could replace Katz once and for all.
Better question: can the average Slashdotter pass the Voight-Kampff empathy test?
Sweet, just caught the reference tonight after watching Bladerunner Director's Cut. Good stuff.
Sony's own press-release offers much more information than the article on smartmoney.com. Just like it's predecessor (the SDR-3X), the SDR-4X offers a MemoryStick-slot to supply additional control programs.
Press-release
The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi