Robots!
i4u writes "Sony introduces at the Robodex 2003 it's new version of the humanoid Robot SDR-4X.
The Sony SDR-4X was introduced last year.
The new version SDR-4X II has improved movement functions, safety functions and conversation capabilities.
The new speech processor supports continuous speech recognition with about 20,000 words.
The Sony SDR-4X II is about 580x190x270mm in size and weighs about 7kg. Sony Japanse Press-Release. See also the new robot Toshiba announced - the ApriAlpha."
Interesting that from a nation that loves its giant battling robots (as seen in every other anime series from Japan) there is enough desire on the part of the manufacturers to create such robots in real life. And that there is enough demand there to make it worthwhile. They wouldn't be able to make these things if they couldn't sell them; You wouldn't be able to get the vast majority of North Americans to shell out a couple thousand on these things or an AIBO for instance. I'm a geek and I think these are cool but you won't catch me buying one until it's smart enough to get a job and make money to pay for itself. So why do the Japanese love these things so much? Any thoughts?