Japanese Robot on Diplomatic Tour

baquiano writes "Inaugurating 21st century diplomacy, Japan's Pime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is visiting Prague this week, accompanied by Honda's experimental humanoid robot, Asimo. According to this story, Asimo even attended the official dinner. Apparently, the Czech Prime Minister Spidla has often been criticized because he's too 'stiff' and 'robot-like.'" Uncomfortable moments aside, it's a fitting tribute, for as stated in the story, the Czech writer Karel Capek was the first to use the term robot.

Comments

"humanoid"?

[ergonal]

What defines a "humanoid robot"? How much do you have to mimick a human to receive this classification?

Obvious

[ChopSocky]

I'm sure this will get modded down, but isn't this an obvious progression? Wouldn't governments jump all over this in order to prevent assassinations or other terror attempts on delegations? Even if the robots weren't completely autonomous, "messenger bots" would allow, in my opinion, high-level people to travel to unsecured locations safely. Just my .02.

Isaac Asimov

[Dr. Jest]

The robot's name is also an obvious tribute to Isaac Asimov, the science fiction writer who gave us the Three Laws of Robotics. I'd think the article would have mentioned that, but I guess the reporter is sadly SF illiterate.

I wonder what drives the Japanese?

[wordisms]

This is very interesting considering this recent article on Japan's new 30-year robot plan.

I've always wondered why the Japanese are so driven towards technology, and especially robots, so much more that most western cultures. Westerners tend to buy more traditional technological products, and those products we buy tend to have a slow progression in form and function.

This just doesn't seem to be the case in Japan, and I wish I knew why. Unfortunantely I haven't yet been able to visit Japan or become more accustomed with their culture.

Would any /.'ers like to answer this one?

A robot goodwill ambassador?

[BitwizeGHC]

Does this mean that protocol droids (a la C-3PO) are now a reality?

Re:A robot goodwill ambassador?

[NanoGator]

"Does this mean that protocol droids (a la C-3PO) are now a reality? "

No. But they're a plausibility. Sorry to sound nitpicky but we're a long way from getting to something C-3PO'esque. We haven't quite gotten the 'real time translation of spoken word to an alternative language' bit yet. It's being developed, but it's significantly harder to do than a walking robot.

Would I be surprised to see protocol droids 10 years from now? I'd be startled, but only because it would still feel a little soon. But it wouldn't be earth shattering.

I have to admit, though, I was damned impressed with some of those Asimo vids. $1 says Sony and Honda will get into a robot race before long.

Robotnik != Robots

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting reference to Rossums' Universal Robots. People used to call them "automatons". Robots in the author of the the play's sense are really specially created humans designed to follow orders and work hard. Perhaps with our ever growing work weeks and globalized work force, we are turning ourselves into Robotniks.

Asimo also payed its respects to Capek...

[LiberalApplication]

...with a nice bouquet of flowers.

I find this at once sweet, silly, and entertaining. Still, maybe he'll visit a monument to Asimov one day and bring even nicer flowers.

ASIMO tour in USA

[jacobdp]

Yeah, ASIMO is currently on "tour" in the US. They were in Boston recently.

The presentation, IMHO, sucked. And I mean really sucked.

It was staged like a rock concert, with REALLY loud music and far too many flashing lights. Designed for the modern child! (*cough*ADHD*cough*) Then they brought in the robot itself, and protrayed it as an AI. It's remote controlled, but the actress (who was sort of annoying anyway) talked to it as if it was a human. I mean, please. It's a seriously awesome feat of engineering; they don't need to turn impressive science into impressive science fiction.