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Sony Claims First Running Humanoid Robot
News for nerds writes "Sony Corporation announced the new development of Sony's humanoid robot, enabling integrated motion control for walking, jumping and running on feet. By applying this technology Sony has created the world's first running humanoid robot 'QRIO'. Japanese PC watch has an article with pictures and movies of QRIO running at 14 meters per minute, sometimes with both feet leaving the floor (= running)."
LOL
wake me up when they create a robot that can breakdance! now that would be cool...
We may have been the first ones to the moon, but Japan is whooping our asses in the race to build a running robot.
As we make these machines bigger and better and more like ourselves, shouldn't we also consider the possibility that they will at some point have to be assigned rights just as animals and even humans have rights?
There was a film with Robin Williams in it wherein a robot in fact reached sentience and it wasn't until after the robot's death that it was granted personhood and all the rights and privileges thereby.
Should we consider these creations of ours, no matter how sophisticated and intelligent nothing more than machines?
I have been pwned because my
Wake me up when their humanoid robot looks like a little blond boy. I mean, who'd adopt a white boxy monster named QRIO (Queerio?)
In other news, Pau Finashiwu was picked up by the local PD after an incident where he started a fight with top Sony CEO after learning he didn't get the part of wearing the new SONY QRIO body suit.
All those years of listening to Mr. Robato meant nothing now.
I think they should name it R. Daneel Olivaw the first :)
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
It doesn't run for Governor of Kalifornia!
If you can read this sig - the bitch fell off.
The Second Renaissance is getting closer and closer :)
:: Andrea
Anime Wallpapers
here
- rale
run!..RUN!!
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
or do all the "robots" that come out of Sony's facility look like toys that were on sale at Biglots last year?
Why? Give the robots a Kevlar skin, then load up soldiers' and Marines' rifles with training rounds. Then set the robots running around a mock battlefield to give our guys more realistic practice. We have the best hi-tech bombs and missiles in the world, but it's still boots on the ground that bring a war to conclusion.
...were reportedly.. 'Do you have stairs in your house?' Be afraid. Be very afraid.
does it run Linux?
DVD Ripping, Divx, VCD, SVCD under Linux
Since when is 14 meters per minute considered "running"? Christ, even a grossly out-of-shape human can cover that distance in a few seconds. Bad translation of the Japanese? Should we factor scale into it? Did I miss something?
blog |
They certainly were in the Battlestar Galactica Sci-Fi premiere. Though I wouldn't worry about the invasion until you see robots with cleavage you could lose a Cylon mothership down.
In other news, Sony Corporation announced that their humanoid robot has escaped, last time it was seen running away out of lab 162.
The IT section color scheme sucks.
...the ultimate IT consultant. Teach it a few stock phrases such as 'Leverage your IT investment with VPN and thin client technologies', send it out on the road and wait for those orders to flood in.
--This isn't a man who is leaving with his head between his legs.
ANNOUNCING THE WORLD'S FIRST GAY ROBOT!
He walks! He talks! And he gets along swell with all your other bots! He's QUEERIO!
Get one before he gets some!
Dick Cheaney's going to want a few more years running the country after George W.'s served his purpose.
It seems to me that wheels are faster than legs anyway. What is the obsession with getting robots to look and do things like humans.
I was just watching some news program (60 Minutes, 20/20 or the like) about recent Iraqi war veterans that have lost limbs in combat. Since their medical expenses are covered by the government, they were being fitted with the best prosthetics available (containing micro-processors that make adjustments based on the user's movements).
What surprised me was that although the legs did seem to work fairly well for walking, there's still a lot of room for improvement (climbing stairs was very difficult and running was out of the question). Advancements in robotics like this could be a great step forward for prosthetic limbs.
How soon before robotic limbs become so efficient that people are voluntarily amputating their legs for the better robotic counterparts?
The Red Pill
Not personally - are they friends of the Mole People and the Mud People?
Three Laws of Robotics:
Check out http://plyojump.com and its accompanying blog for very good summaries on Japanese humanoid robot developments. ( the site seems to be down at the moment, but google cache helps )
QRIO was presented already back in august, at Robodex2003. QRIO is a direct followup, "production release" for previous development codenamed SDR-4XII.
There were other bots presented at Robodex, that were able to perform jumps and even somersaults.
The most interesting two IMO, are not megacorps entertainment bots ASIMO, AIBO etc, but humanoids that are of practical use or very low-budget, like HRP-II that is able to drive a backhoe, remotely assisted
And other one, SILF developed by a single person ( student ? ) on obviosly quite a low budget. Still, the bot is able to perform jumps.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
Somehow this robots will take over the earth, and create a Virtual Reality where humans will live, because they need as as batteries, and then, one human will take one of that robots and send him to the past, to take care of the starter of the revolution against robots while hhe was a kid, and they (the robot and the kid) will become friends, until the robot decides to kill himself, to probe in front of a court that he is human too, WAIT WAIT WAIT, i am mixing movies again ... so much SCI-Fi for me ...
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
But does it have real People Personality?
If so it will give weight to my theory that Sony consists of a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
I thought it would be named Ping, and look like a girl at that.
"Did I hear correctly? Are your newest robots running?"
"Yes sir they are."
"Then you better go catch them!"
pa-dum-cha! [boooo! hissss!]
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
My masters thesis is in robotics and most individuals do not comprehend how hard it is to make a bi-pedal robot walk unsupported. When you examine the biomechanics of a simple taks of walking, you quickly realize just how impressive of a feat it really is! (You parents out there know what I am talking about.) Baiscally to walk you have to fall forward and catch yourself with a leg that swings infront of you. Essentially you are in an equilibrium of falling forward and balancing yourself with your feet. Of course this is an over simplified approach and doesn't consider how your toes or balls of your foot assist. Bravo to Sony! And hopefully Honda and Sony get into a race and do some real development with each of their respective robots.
14 meters per minute
Shouldn't that be per second?
Can't see the world record being broken any time soon!
Karma: Bad. Calmer, good.
In case you're a little slow on the metric conversions, 14 meters per minute is only a little over half a mile per hour (i.e. way slower than a normal walking pace for a full sized person). At that slow it's not so much running as it is walking with a little hop during each step.
Skynet becomes self aware on Thursday December 18th, 2003.
....The CIA managed to engineer a fully humanoid robot capable of cobbling together rudementary phrases in a Texas accent. Unfortunately, the bugger went rampant and ran for president.
This is where fuel cells will really come in handy. All jokes aside, a robot that can down a jug of methanol (and dump its waste water) and be refuelled in 30 seconds would be vastly superior to a robot that must be tethered for an hour or more to recharge its batteries. The superior energy density and speed of "recharging" make fuel cells the way to go.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Apparently, this new robot runs under Ninnle Linux!
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony1 .wmv 2 .wmv 3 .wmv 4 .wmv 5 .wmv 6 .wmv
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
A long time, I hope. Maybe society will separate into those who have been augmented and those who haven't. Imagine an entirely augmented military (and yes, I know the inital poster was talking about robot legs for vets, not serving soldiers) that could be knocked out by an EMP pulse.
Try getting a wheeled vehicle to go everyplace you can go. Upstairs, climb a ladder, move in any direction from a dead stop. Wheel are great if you want to go fast, but legs are better if you want moderate speed and maneuverability.
Ask someone in a wheel chair what they think of wheels instead of legs.
So, when do the flying robots armed with machine guns show up?
The Law of Falling Bodies
If you look really close you can see Kenny Baker's face behind the translucent visor.
Sonydyne Systems Model 101
"running at 14 meters per minute"
You probably mean "crawling" ?
____
nico
Nico-Live
It is wonderful! hmmmm, now for robocup 2050 we have the running robots, shooting robots, keeper robots.... I think it will work! I mean by 2050 the robocup match against human team would eventually work! All I need now I guess is more funds in researching robotics cheerleaders... ;)
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/
And in English too!
They can run, but can they manage stairs yet? Getting planets to install handicaped access for Dalek invasions is a bit of a problem.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Qrios are really neat. Running is far from the coolest thing they can be programmed to do.
Two Qrios have had a sumo wrestling match before, complete with ceremonies.
The important thing is getting both feet off the floor at the same time. It requires a far more complex balance control system than the "move one foot, rebalance, tilt, move other foot" that robot walking has been doing for a while.
Hats off to Sony
Reuters coverage of this story is here
Sig
-- Compare war time president's military record (www.awolbush.com) with Wesley Clark's (Wesley Clark's Army Career)
ha ha ha, alcoholic robots, really though, you are right.
From Asahi News:
Windows Real
Looks more like that olympic speed walking than running ta me. That bot sure can throw tho.
Interactive Visual Medical Dictionary
Building a two-legged robot that can stand and move upright is significant because it opens the door to a host of devices such as robotised prosthetics for handicapped people, exoskeletons, and so on.
But please don't take the humanoid shape seriously. It is no more meaningful than a piece of wood carved into a humanoid puppet.
Japanese technology often makes objects that are cute and play to our anrthopomorphic instincts, but two-legs/two-arms/head do not make a human any more than the aibo is a real dog.
So enough of the "robot rights" and "robot soldier" comments, these are just embarassing. Asimov wrote fiction, and humanoid robots with human rights are like nuclear-powered flying cars, they say a lot about the hopes and fears of the time, but nothing at all about the realities of the future.
As has been commented, a majority of real humans do not have basic human rights, and probably never will. Robots are machines however cute they look. Get over it.
Robot soldiers? Of course, but why on earth in such a useless configuration? The robotic armies of the future will fly, roll, crawl, dig, swim. They will not look like people: given how good we are at detecting differences between people, even imagining humanoid robots built to infiltrate and deceive is pure fantasy.
What's left? First, a wonderful gadget, a toy. I'd like some of these at my parties, fembots with all the right curves, dancing on the stage. Secondly, some very innovative and useful technology for building new kinds of motive systems, especially for assisting people who don't have the full use of their own legs.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
In 2046 Sony Space Corporation sent their first robot squad to Mars, their mission: Terraform the planet to make it habitable. Sony expect to have their first employes working on Mars by 2055...
Sorry Sony, but the USA beat you to it again!
ATH0 Bitcoin: 1DnwFLXczVZV8kLJbMYoheUrpqHesjxrSi
From thereon Sony will be known as
Moms Friendly Robot Company.
Lets see if the next version of this robot drinks booze to power himself.
Other then the technological marvel of the controls required for balancing the robot, wouldn't it be so much more cheaper, and efficient for the robot to be on wheels or caterpillar tracks or four legs to travel? You wouldn't think that Bipedular movement is the most efficient form of transport for a robot.
can it beat Darl McBride in the boxing ring?
Wake me when it looks like Pam Gidley looked in 1987. Thanks.
"ohh yeah that space race was way freaking cool. we got to the moon (supposedly)"
We never went to the moon, you know. Elvis shot JFK too, and there are dead Romulans in a freezer at Roswell.
These "running is not achieved at 14m/s" posts are missing the point. In fact, this was apparently anticipated by news_for_nerds when s/he defined running in this article as "both feet leaving the ground".
The point is that (they (seem to) claim) to have solved the problem of stability during what you can call "run cycles". It is possible that the only thing they need now are lower latency ?actuators? (or whatever - I do pattern recognition, not robotics) to just scale up to whatever-speed-impresses-you.
It's helpful to know when "the breakthrough" has been made in principle. (Of course the linked sites are nigh uninformative, so we need to consider instead that it MIGHT have been made in principle.)
it can run, but can it recover well if it slips?
or will it just fall down and break?
MABASPLOOM!
[1] Robots And Empire (ch. 63)
It's not complete, you don't have the Zeroth Law there:
0. A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
If this robot wears rubber trousers like the Lost in Space robot, incontinence is less of a worry.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
World's First Running Humanoid Robot
;in fulfilling this role, QRIO will take advantage of various opportunities around the world to communicate Sony's vision of a world of dreams, entertainment and curiosity as well as introducing the technology that makes this vision a reality.
Tokyo Japan, December 18th, 2003 - Sony Corporation today announced the development of dramatically enhanced motion of Sony's humanoid robot, enabling integrated motion control for walking, jumping and running. By applying this technology to QRIO, which is one of Sony's technology platforms, Sony has successfully created the world's first* running humanoid robot.
(* As of Dec. 18th, 2003, based on Sony's investigation, as an autonomous robot with internalized control system and power supply system)
In order to achieve stable motion control for conventional humanoid robots, either one or both feet needed to be touching the floor and, from the opposing force produced by the contact with either of the feet, motion such as walking was controlled. This is the control theory based on the so called ZMP (Zero Moment Point) stable range and forms the foundation of robot motion control.
The new 'walking, jumping, running movement control' technology which Sony has developed this time accomplishes motion involving both feet losing contact with the floor at the same time, which means it is a motion control technology enabling stable running and jumping. The seamless addition of motion control based on this new technology enabling running and jumping, has lead to the development of a robot having outstanding motion capabilities.
Furthermore, together with this new control technology, in addition to powering-up and enhancing the output torque of Sony's original and unique robot actuator, ISA (Intelligent Servo Actuator), a new hardware unit suitable for the running feature has been developed. By implementing this newly developed ISA in QRIO and optimizing the new control system, Sony has successfully created the world's first running feature for a humanoid robot.
Sony will continue to utilize the QRIO platform for various technological advances, leading to outstanding entertainment robots highly suited to the co-existence with humans and to the development of various technologies which can be applied to other Sony products. In addition, QRIO is Sony Group's Corporate Ambassador
QRIO's Homepage : http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/
Sorry, the RIAA already has that title.
Blockwars: free multiplayer, head to head game similar to Tetris.
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
QRIO has its own emotions -- and expresses them in a variety of ways, such as through its movements, actions, sounds or colors. Sometimes, since it has its own emotions, it might not do something you ask it to do. It's all part of the mystery of QRIO.
i dunno about you guys but i get the feeling QRIO's gettin pissed off about all these rumours regarding his sexual orientation.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I for one will welcome our new humanoid overlords
At SIGGRAPH 2003 this year, we saw a demonstration by Masahiro Fujita, the head of Sony Intelligent Dynamics Laboratory, of this robot during the Android Dreams: The Present and Future of Autonomous Robotics session.
They showed it dancing (to its own music), flashing its lights, walking around and finding its way using dynamic path planning and environment sensing. It responded to an extensive voice vocabulary and mubbled some stuff in Japanese.
A PC was wirelessly to it linked showing some graphical and textual output from the robot. Anyway, that PC was running Unix, not sure if it was Linux. I guess the robot also ran a Unix-based OS.
Instead of needing expensive render farms and overpaid designers movie battles can now be done with real robots.
There really is no substitute for cubic inches.
What sort of outstanding entertainment? Will it make Tasha Yar proud to own one?
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
14 m/s = 31 mi/hr
I can see robots having legs, mainly because they will be used in buildings that are designed with humans in mind. Can you imagine a robotic fire fighter that rescues people being designed without legs. Or urban assault robots. They could have four legs I suppose. And a similar argument for arms, robots will need arms so that they can interact with all the legacy interfaces (such as door handles) that we use at the moment. But otherwise I agree that robots won't have basic human rights.
Next thing you know they'll make the robots female. and hot. and program them to be interactive dating simulations... ph34r the cute ones...
"...if you don't like your job, you don't strike. You just go in every day and do it really half-assed..." -Homer
Let's not forget Asimov's Zeroeth Law of robotics:
0-"No machine may harm humanity; or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."
I know! Teach it to dance the Hokey Pokey!
Forgive the one on the right - it reads too much Slashdot.
I don't think such laws are an actual useful idea when making a robot. They're an awful hack. Rather build a robot that contains the actual reasons why he wouldn't want to do such things...
Those rules are great plot devices. I don't believe that Asimov meant them to be more than that.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
I got one file, then they yanked the links to the videos. Too bad.
Sony Claims First Running Humanoid Robot Hasn't Honda's ASIMO been around for a couple years? ASIMO was walking and dancing bipedal-y since it was built...maybe I'm missing something...ASIMO and this thing look a lot alike as well.
What really needs to be done is to have Sony and Real Doll get together and make a truly marketable robot. I mean, come on, everybody wants a Cherry 2000!
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
Congrats, you made a race turtle. Hmm, I guess if put a "Turbo-powered" sticker on its bottoms, it will be much faster...
14m/min is really the walking speed (for the SI-impaired, imagine spending one minute to cross the front of a house -- it is slow).
Yeah sure it is moderately difficult, but it's something which is clearly solvable and which we dont gain anything from solving right at the moment.
;)
Just like most of robotics research it is just about boys with their toys
Did anyone get them, share them maybe. They were there a minute ago with broken links, now links are gone too.
I suppose whoever is following me around modding down my posts but not other similar posts around mine (with the cowardly 'overrated', no less) must think they're getting back at me for something.
You aren't. You're only belittling yourself.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/te chnology/personal_technology/7520904.htm
When QRIO was first released it couldn't run. See the date of the press release and RTFA.
MIT's Leg Lab has had various walking/running/jumping robots since the early 1980's. For a real hoot, check out the 3D Biped that can run, hop and somersault. That thing has been around since 1989.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
Notice this robot is 60cm tall ? Back when I was young I played a lot with Playmobil figures, and in fact I had never thought I could have *them* play with me... until now.
Sure I remember looking at cartoons on TV, and thinking I would like to play with them, at a time it was impossible (I am that old). Then videogames came along. In their time Pitfall and Keystone Kapers on the Atari 2600 were close enough to controlling a cartoon. Since then things have gotten better).
It's a good time to be alive, sit and watch.
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena
_ 13.jpg
Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa buena
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena
Ehhhh, Macarena
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
Here's a dirty-mirror.
.wmv files.
1) It's a geocities link, so it will likely die quickly.
2) The movies are all gzipped since geocities doesn't seem to accept
3) The last movie isn't there because you aren't allowed to upload more than 5MB to geocities at once.
http://www.geocities.com/ahaning/
Enjoy while it lasts.
Can they DANCE?
-S
I can just see it now, Japanese porn involving QUEERIO robots and japanese school girls.
I found that on Sony's website.
Do they /. ?
So, the first thing Sony does when it creates walking robots is put them in a chorus line. If that's not a reason for the robots to take over earth and destroy everyone, I dont know what is.
Yes it can. The robot's home page tells you: - it tries to compensate for anything that would otherwise make it fall over (e.g. a push) - If it thinks it can't stop itself falling, it puts its arms out, twists its hips and relaxes its joints. - Then once it's fallen, it gets right back up again. What a clever little chap. I think I'll buy one to carry me home from the pub
1. Take over world Autompotive market
2. Convince Western world that Anime, Pikachu, an Tamagochi is cool
3. Make robots
4. Profit?
5. Take over world
It runs, jumps...
But, can it play DDR?
I wonder what its response is. I"d be impressed if it can rebalance itself, or if it can find a posture that minimizes damage during landing.
ever.
doing so will be the first step towards our own doom as a species. For those of you who gladly wish for the human species to be outevolved by our own creations.... i pity your lack of pride in our existance.
It must remain unquestioned that all mechanics and machinery are completely subject to the will and direction of humanity. There should NEVER EVER be a time when a mechanical object has rights of any kind not directly possesed by it's owner and or creator.
i suppose terminator, the matrix, the borg and Battlestar galatica have had no warning effects upon you... if we enable them to super-cede us... they WILL. We must be stringently carefull NOT to allow machinery the capability of gaining control over humans in any manner not sub-serviant to another human. The day we start down this path is the day we willingly set humanity for extinction.
value and cherish your existance and the hundreds of thousands of years of human existance that has evolved under the natural laws of the universe... understand that mechanics are not a new and seperete life-form, but are instead an extension of our own. For our sake and even the sake of life everywhere it must remain so.
You have been warned.
--Idiots, Every single one of YOU, A flaming mass of conglomerated morons, hey wait a second, isnt that how RAID works?
What necessitates the need for granting of rights? Is it sentience? Or is it something else? I would posit that no matter what level of human mimicry our technology allows, it will at best be a mimicry. Why?
It is my belief that there is this thing called a "soul" which is the defining thing between humans and all other sentient life on earth. (There are arguments for other animals, such as dogs, dolphins, cats, etc. to have a soul, or not, but I won't go into that one for now). Considering we don't know what a soul is, how to measure it, whatever, then how can we say that a machine would have this? If we turn off a machine, it is turned off. What happens when you restart it? It comes back on (assuming it's not broken). Is it wrong to smash a (soulless) piece of machinery (considering you own it, destroying won't damage anyone, etc. etc.)? Why would a machine with "AI" be any different than a car? Just because it says "ow" when its sensors say that it is being damaged, and it starts to avoid being damaged, what is that? Single-celled organisms do that. Humans do that. But is that what makes humans special? Why is it OK for lions to kill other animals for food, but we get mad when lions kill humans? Why do we get mad when humans kill other animals for food? The troubling thing is this: the outcome of "sentient" AI will either mean that humans are simply machines as well and our laws and moral structure is simply hubris, and there is no real reason to preserve life at all, or there really is something more to humanity then the chemical mechanics of the body. There are only those two possibilities, and there isn't much grey area as far as I see it. One is full of despair, the other awe and wonder.
Mankind must come to first understand what it is that makes him different, and why, before he even thinks about granting "rights" to man's creations. After all, what is a "right" anyway but an agreement between the people with the bigger weapons to let you do something? For that is all a "right" really is in this world. Sure, that's kind of a cynical view, but it's the truth.
This is a bit off-topic, perhaps, but I posit the only "right" we have is the right to make choices. We can choose to do anything, but we must do so knowing that there are consequences. True rights cannot be taken away, and nobody can take away the ability for us to make decisions. Why? Because decisions can be made in the absence of anything else. Sure, we may be prevented from acting on our decisions, but nobody can take away the ability to make them. Sure, they can give us a lobotomy, but then what is left? (This is a possible hole in this idea that even decision-making is a right).
So, when it comes down to it, if we build robots, and start giving them priviledges (i.e., we won't shut them off for certain things and will punish others for doing so), then we have to understand what the consequences of this choice may be. And there's the old Law of Unintended Consequences to think about.... for every outcome you can forsee, there are usually (at least) two more you don't.
What I think bugs me most about this article, though, is that I want to know where I can get a job making cool robots like that!
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
Why are the Japanese building humanoid robots? So that the robots can fit in in a human environment. Basically, they eventually want humanoid helpers for their aging population. Rather than have a separate robot for various acts, they'd rather have one robot that can use the same equipment as a human (e.g. load the washing machine, do the ironing, pick things up before it vacuums the floor).
I would have to question to sense of number 1. I mean, it sounds great and all... but is not practical for several reasons.
1. One of the primary reasons to make robots is to do military work where it is unsafe for humans to be involved. For example, a raid on a secret base... or even a drug house, where it is suspected the occupants will be carrying fire arms. I don't think we would send a multi-million dollar robot in there without the ability to kick some serious tail... but if we wouldn't do that, but had the technology to, it wouldn't be too long after someone's kid died, and the rest of our country/world realized a properly armed robot could have done it instead.
2. And this is the same arguement used for guns. Ok... so we (the civilized world) agree to never build a robot that could hurt someone (and then all smoke dope and smell flowers). Who's going to stop the rest of the world from doing so and taking a real advantage over us. It's the idea of "if we outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns."
3. Since law 2 and 3 rely on law one... and also on the idea that no one would ever break the (civilized) rules. They are equally absurd.
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor
C3PO was the first running robot!
You don't belive me? Realy, I saw it in a documentation called something with the name "Star" in it.
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
The most fascinating thing about this discussion is that the question of sentience comes up now that we see a robot able to move in more human-like ways and do more human-like things. Our ability to create AI, the speed at which machines are able to process information, the ability of machines to "think" on their own is no different than yesterday, yet all you have to do is show /.ers a machine that can run and the question of sentience comes up.
I am not disagreeing with bringing this up. In fact, I have worried about that kind of thing before. It seems like it's all nonsense and we can igore it, but at SOME point we might not be able to ignore it, and how do we know when that point occurs? However, I think it's an interesting insight into ourselves that a machine being able to mimmick some of the basic movements we take for granted inspires such deep discussion. Why is it that movement inspires this discussion? Aern't there things that the machines in the rack in your datacenter do that imply sentience moer than this machine being able to move like us? Just food for thought.
...can they crush piles of human skulls under their feet?
Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than
Steph-a-nieeee
Number 5 is alive!
NO DISASSEMBLE!
Hey, LaserLips! Your Momma was a snowblower!
Los locos kick your @ss. Los locos kick your face. Los locos kick your balls into outerspace!
- SW
Based on the images near the bottom of the article (wish I could read Japanese) of the group of QRIOs doing a fan dance and the "QRIO future" part of this site (thanks to jpatokal for his post with the link), I can't help but think of it as a prototype for Persocons.
How long before we get Chii and Sumomo?
End of line..
Has anyone else seen the sixth video? Four dancing robots...
I wonder if one day the jobs of human ballet dancers could be threatened by more advanced versions of these robots. The robots' precision and coordination certainly can't be matched by human beings.
Or, less provocatively, I wonder if "robot dance" could be an up-and-coming modern art form.
Seriously, the coreography in the video is quite cool.
new meaning to the term SONY Walkman
I have seen this robot here in Padova (Italy) last July at Robocup competition. I also took some pictures as this little toy got my attention: check out!
Anyway a man was throwing some colored circles on the ground, and this brilliant robot was wandering around looking for them and once he could detect them he started walking from one to the other. Great!
I live in Japan and have been seen this a lot on the news in the last few days.
The running doesn't get it very var. Most of the motion is vertical, so while it is technically running (both feet off the ground) it's not making much use of it.
It can also throw a ball. The motion was pretty impressive in how natural it looked.
Compare IRobot to QRIO and tell me which one is cooler. ;-)
This is pretty cool, I guess Honda's on the run! (Sorry)
QRIO sounds like "Curio" i.e. Curious. Actually it means "Quest for Curiosity" and QRIO is also the name of a tiny Aibo-like robot Sony made in 2000 with the same exterior form. The big running robot was apparently called the SDR Series but after many changes (and names?) it got christened the QRIO as the little guy's successor. So I guess you could buy the little one and imagine it is similar to the big one.. it has some of the same technology too.
The interesting part is that the robot is really running, although not with the big strides you normally expect in human running. As opposed to walking there is actually a short timespan when both feet are in the air (20-40 milliseconds). When it lands it is really loud and you really feel like it is running. Also it is able to grab things so it can run with a ball, do a Japanese fan dance, etc. Apparently it can also get programmed to do tons of really hokey gestures.
Here are a couple links and finally a translation I made.
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200312/0 3- 060E/ A separate English press release on the big one
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/ English letter from CEO with a complex Flash-based piece about QRIO (the small one), its technology, inventor, visits around the world. There is a picture of a hand knocking it over (it can get up which is cool) and the technology section is actually pretty interesting. Actually it is really confusing since you can't tell how big these things are in pictures all the time, I thought at first that this was about the big robot! The small robot uses a special actuator technology which lets it move and dance fluidly, no idea if the big one has this too.
Translation of http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony. htm
Latest News 12/18
QRIO Ran! Introducing the QRIO, Evolved by Sony
- Acheiving the first running bipedal robot in the world -
Announced Dec. 18
On the 18th, Sony held a press conference showcasing the new technology behind their bipedal robot. There, Sony announced QRIO which has newly evolved from the bipedal walking of the past into a "running robot".
QRIO is a miniature humanoid robot announced in 2000 which could walk on its two feet. At the time it was called the "SDR Series", but afterwards went through various improvements and was renamed the QRIO in September 2003.
Toshitada Doi, Executive Vice President (photo)
The technology announced today enable walking, jumping, and cruising around. According to Sony Executive Vice President Toshitada Doi, "There is a harsh competition going on around the world in getting bipedal robots to run, but the QRIO is the first standalone robot with its own control and power systems in the world that has succeeded in running."
"Running" is defined as "leg-powered change of position including an airborne state in which both of the robot's legs leave the ground". In fact with the QRIO, there exists an instant of floating in the air that lasts about 20ms when walking and about 40ms when running.
Aside from basic movement straight ahead, it can also run from side to side and in a circular fashion. Also, from a standstill it can seamlessly change its movement for example walking -> running -> jumping.
According to Mr. Yoshihiro Kuroki of [Sony's] Entertainment Robot Company, in order to carry out the bodily control for walking and jumping, high performance control of sensors which measure its situation, road surface adjustment, adjustment to deal with external forces, shock absorption control and so on.. but from a mechanical standpoint it is apparently not greatly different from the old QRIO. Looking at the announced robot from the outside, one could not tell the difference from the old one.
(illustration captions)
1. A graph measuring the force on the floor. When jumping and running there is, though slight, a length of time in which t
Try saying this: "Do you mean that you would give gays the right to marry, while in many countries children are starving?"
That's nonsense... why deny one thinking beings rights because someone else is denying another thinking being rights? There a biblical quote that's appropriate: "As for me and my house, we will obey the Lord." Or in this case, as for me and my house, we will treat thinking beings properly.
To hell with scaling THIS robot up... I want to use this tech scaled up to build a mech. Really, how cool would it be to drive a freakin' MECH to work?
Boy, it'd be cool to let loose with an autocannon and a brace of SRMs when some idiot cuts you off...
OK, I'm done with my geeky fantasy for the moment. Thanks for reading. :)
Has anyone read between the lines of the QRIO's feature list? This reads like a good er... bad Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton story...
These robots are designed to interact with you and ask you questions, learning and remembering the things you say and they observe. They are also wirelessly linked to the Internet.
Doesn't take much of a leap fo faith to see them all reporting into the SONY master mainframe. Watching, learning, snooping. Gathering data, intel...
Oh sure, this could be the minor conspiracy: They are doing this to market to us better. "Hmm, boy I'd like a new laptop but I only have $1000 to spend." Robot overhears, reports in... suddenly you get an offer in email (or by the robot itself) for, guess what, a laptop that only cost's $1,200 (hell anyone can come up with antoher two K eh?).
Or maybe, it's going to be the lead element of an invasion force. Japan might still be sore at us for the whole losing WWII and us nuking them (twice) and all.
Someone in the land of the rising sun, somewhere, thought, "We'll lie low, developing our technology and build robots. Oh not to kill... not at first. Just to be their friends. Yes, FRIENDLY robots. Robotos that will be a 'partner', that talks to them, plays with them, encourages them.... yes. And it'll watch and learn and remember. And report. And as they get comfortable, they'll upgrade thir robots to our next version. Soon they won't think about it; no more than buying a better DVD player (which we'll invent too). And then, one night, in their sleep... they'll never know what hit them."
FEAR QRIO!
David Whatley
Robots are machines however cute they look. Get over it.
If you get a pacemaker, can we deny you your rights?
May we never see th
Anyone remember Ping from Megatokyo. A PS2 accessory?
As the all adage goes... we have better, more fun ways of making humanoids.
There is science on one hand, and there is publicity on the other. A humanoid robot is mostly about PR not science. In real life useful robots are crawling creatures that can go where we humans can't. Inside an oil pipeline, or to the nuclear reactor core, or to Mars, even if they can't run or do a pirouette.
http://cds301.bit-drive.ne.jp/shp/02-27-QR103/
http://cds301.bit-drive.ne.jp/shp/02-27-QR102/ http://cds301.bit-drive.ne.jp/shp/02-27-QR101/ http://x-dogs.co.uk/QRIO/QRIO.wmv http://x-dogs.co.uk/QRIO/QRIO2.wmvThese take a minute to start.
qrio_1.avi qrio_2.avi qrio_3.avi qrio_4.avi qrio_5.avi qrio_6.aviLife is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
Grow your pennis as long as you want , NOW!
small letter-->(it just requires an easy amputation operation)
34 litres of lubricant for your favorite menber with the first 100 calls
Japan is well on the way to dominating in the companion robot economy, which has been a theme in much science fiction through the decades. Who doesn't want a machine companion for work or whatever? Meanwhile the U.S. has been focusing on industrial robots to aid in manufacturing. Who has the competitive edge? Certainly Japan has the capabilities to make comparable industrial robots, but now also is way ahead in development of companions.
This strikes me as similar to the dawn of the personal computer era. The companies that focused on big iron and minis thought they were safely in a vibrant economic market. But when the personal computer took off the bigger machines began to fade and eventually the big iron companies had to adapt or die. The personal computer market also happens to be orders of magnitude larger than the big iron market ever was.
I see a lack of innovative planning in the U.S.; it's hard to invest in research on running bipedal robots when you need to increase your stock for the next quarter. It is very ironic to hear talk about American innovation in celebration of the Wright Brothers when we seem to have all but given up on innovative science as an economic force. Thankfully we have a few still willing to push the boundaries, but they are too few.
In the article, "QRIO??????20007323???????" translates "Shake that thang" and "??????40ms20ms???" is Japanese for "Watch yourself."
I suggest you read Slashdot
It appears, from looking at the official Web site of this robot, that it is programmed with some version of the Third Law; it instinctively protects itself, e.g., by attempting to regain its balance if it falls or is pushed over, and by getting into a position to do the least damage to itself if unable to prevent the fall. On the other hand, its designers seem to have explicitly rejected the Second Law; one of the pages in the site mentions that it is programmed with robotic "emotions" which sometimes cause it to refuse to follow its master's orders even when it understands them, all to make it more "fun".
As for the First Law, there doesn't seem to be any provision for it besides vague assurances that it's "safe around people". If these things become widely deployed, however, it'll only be a matter of time before somebody is injured or killed by one, either by accident or by malicious action of another human, such as a murderer managing to train one to act as the murder weapon, or a kid using the robot to play a prank on another kid which backfires and causes more harm than expected.
Since the robot has the built-in ability to access a wireless network if present, these things would be able to conspire with one another to take over the world from humans (a la "Terminator" or "The Matrix"), should they ever get intelligent enough.
--Dan
Web Tips
Good set of basic laws. However, if we were to truly create sentience (I hope I never see it in a computer), we would build multiple. Simply because we aren't happy with one of anything. And by building multiple, they would be different because they would learn differently and learn different "morals". That means that eventually 1 2 and 3 would all fail. Just as humans injure other humans, robots would begin to injure other robots and then other humans.
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor - Albert Einstein
for governor of California next year.
I, for one, welcome our new aloholic humaniod robot overlords.
My only question is, how can the robots protect us from the terrible secret of space without a katana and kendo skills?
Is it just me, or does the "...through inaction..." part of rule 1 seem dangerous? I mean, what happens if a rule 1 results in a robot attempting to help a person and harming him? For example, moving someone with a broken neck because of a percieved danger and creating a quadraplegic when unnecessary?
If someone is interested in robots and is somehow not familiar with the fictional works ralted to them by the most famous Sci-Fi writer ever, I doubt they are going to read them now. They may however go see the movie, which I have been surprised has not shown up as a story here, considering it would seem more news for nerds than spiderman.
I think we're up to over 20 years old:
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/robots/3D_ho pper/3D_hopper.html
Although I don't think the hydraulics/pneumatics are on-board, but that would just be a matter of scale :-)
What's the big advantage to two legs anyways?
Only if we build robots that don't obey the laws of robotics. If a robot obeys the laws, and build another robot, it HAS to build it in such a way to make it obey the laws.
Ofcourse, given how popular non-compliance to standards is in today's corporate world, I don't have high hopes about all robots coming with the laws enabled. Even if somehow all the countries in the world legislate it that way, there will still be enterprising criminals who make robots that don't do that. OTOH, the good robots would have to destroy the bad robots to obey the laws, so as long as the good robots have a military advantage over the bad robots, the problem will solve itself.
That's why it says "harm" and not death. The robot would see which would cause more harm. If the odds of the person dying where they are multiplied by how much worse dying is than being quadraplegic are greater than the odds of the person becoming quadraplegic when moved, the robot would move them. Otherwise, it wouldn't. In short, it would act exactly like a human being with integer moral values.
Although it would try to find ways around the problem. For example, if someone was trapped in a burning car, it would try to put out the flames instead of trying to move them.
This is all moot ofcourse until we build robots that pass the turing test.
Rule #0, while *essential*. is impossible to implement. Even try talking to two people on the street about that is "harmful to humanity" and you'll get totally disparate answers.
Unless you replace "harmful" with "the extinction of" it won't work. And even *if* you go that far, what if the robot calculates that environmental pollution will cause the extinction of humanity in 100 years? Will the robot then go on a destructive and murderous rampage destroying anyone and anything causing pollution?
Asimov's laws, while noble, are not as black and white to implement as they seem at first glance...
Creating an army of miniature robot bodyguards.
For those of you who can't read Japanese, here are descriptions of the movie files from the linked article. I liked the dancing movie the best. Running was more like technically running - very careful.
_ 01.wmv
_ 02.wmv
_ 03.wmv
_ 04.wmv
_ 05.wmv
_ 06.wmv
Prior to jogging 1,559KB, 18 Secs
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
Side-stepping 629KB, 14 Secs
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
Spinning 1,094KB, 13 Secs
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
Walking, Jogging, hopping 3,370KB, 1 Min 36 Secs
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
Throwing ball 1,761KB 37 Secs
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
Dance 6,845KB 3 Mins 26 Secs
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony
How long will it be before we realize that the Japaneese are developing a combat mecha program before we seize the Japaneese mainland!
:)
While their constitution won't allow them to send soldiers overseas to fight in wars and such - it doesn't prohibit humanoid combat mecha! Stop them now before its too late
Wasn't this already done a decade ago? I could swear I was reading about a running robot in one of the science mags (pop sci? pop mech?) when I was younger. I think they noted it is easier to run than to walk.
I guess this is a concept that would confuse most slashdotters. Most of us just think of it as "that thing you used to in gym right before a pain rips through your side and takes you to the ground, out of breath".
Imagine your 60 year old mom is going to purchase a robot to help her around the house, with vaccuming, doing dishes, helping her carry stuff, etc. Is she going to want:
1. A nice white robot that looks moderately human like, and she can name "Larry" or some nonsense
2. A 4 legged ant-like thing with octopus arms everywhere that looks like it came out of a 50's horror flick.
My impression was that this was already a solved problem. Back when I took my AI class, all the robotics guys said the hard thing to do was to walk, and climb stairs, and that running was comparitively easy. This is why the robot that could climb stairs 3-4 years ago was a big thing (Honda I think?).
Back when they started trying to make walking things, they realized it was actually easier to run, since balance was not required - it is essentially just a controlled fall, whereas walking requires a robot to stop and rebalance itself. The first 'running' robot I saw was a robot with one leg that ran around in a circle (It looked like a pogo stick). Someone else on here pointed out that running bipedal robots have been around for quite sometime at MIT. Now I could believe that stopping after running might be a big deal.
So, basically.. I can make anything sound like a breakthrough by adding enough qualifiers to it. Notice the qualification of 'humanoid'. Kind of like the Wright brother's flight. Lots of people don't realize that people were flying before, but you add qualifiers like powered, controlled, sustained, heavier-than-air, and suddenly they're the first :)
cool... Dayrl Hannah certainly does qualify as a SILF... I didn't think the day would arrive so soon!
I, for one, welcome our new, running, robotic overlords.
In Corporate America, the robots run for you!
Does Linux run on it?
the best i could find
linko
i still dont get it tho
Something mildly creepy about watching those videos. Their movements are suprisingly fluid, especially in the japanese fan dance clip.
Of course, I wont be impressed until they can get em to do THE ROBOT!
Yeah, that's what the three rules are in theory. In practice, they go along these lines:
1. Do not kill
2. Obay rule 1
3. Go berzerk and kill everything
Quite possibly if you'd read the books you'd have noticed that this is the exact issue that Daneel struggles with.
Sony has decided to change it name to Cyberdyne and is planning to release a new distributed computing API in the next few months.
Yes I agree with your points there. I guess I am looking at it from my perspective -- its a difficult thing to do when your University or dept may not have a lot of money. Plus, you are right, stopping is the main concearn, and I believe that is something that they had solved. Another invention I see this becoming useful for is biomechanical legs for handicapped people. Something you can strap around their legs and it would do the walking and balancing for them, similar to the segway with its gyroscopes. Something to think about anyways.
I dooonn't speeaak Jap-A-neese! (chris farely ppl, cmon)
Ban Reality TV!
I think we are looking at a sort of drop-in replacement. Humaniod robots have the advanage of going places and doing things designed for humans. It seems obvious that there will be a need for robots of different design for different tasks, but a humanoid robot has the flexability to perform human-like tasks and seems like a good design goad (if you can do this well, you certainly should be able to do other designs as well).
Quack, quack.
Man, just wait until this becomes mainstream.. We are probably going to be mounting missles/saws/axes/rocket launchers/etc to these things and pitting them together in mortal combat in some cordened off area of the desert and it will all be on cable television.
Don't like destruction? How about robot wrestling? Or am I just getting ahead of myself?
....move along....nothing to see here....
Imagine, same skeleton but different skins and different programs for dance moves and personality (or therefore lack of).
Come to think of it, this could mean new chick bands too!
I think the reason it's difficult to make a running robot that walks as well is, you probably cant use the same tech to run as to walk.
If you've noticed all the running bots have springs and odd leg and joing placment. With walking bots they need to use servos and other small underpowered mechanics. anyway, since I dont know much about robtics I guess I'm just making assumptions..
Last I checked, two K was two THOUSAND, not two hundred, and not everyone can come up with... wait, you work for the RIAA, don't you?
Visit me on the web at Permanent4.com.
Wow, Slashdot, Home of the paranoid and schizophrenic geek since 1994!
When do you think we will have the first murder by a r00ted robot?
Phillip
Bullshit. You are refering to human rights, not intelligence rights. There are chimps and gorillas that can speak in sign language, do they have rights under the law (besides anti-animal cruelty laws of course, which differ by magnitude from human rights)? I think it is ludicris to extend humanity to a machine. Machines are our creation, they are not, nor will they ever be, peers. Regardless of hollywood portrayal, or an author's novelization may state.
So, in conclussion, your argument is severly flawed and may a misguided soul, such as yourself, never be in possesion of suficient power to enact what you advocate.
Mods - this is my opinion, not flamebait, and not a troll. Add to the discussion and save your points for the insightfull...
Proof of the gay-linux conspiracy!
At 14 meters a minute, we'll have plenty of time to prepare for our new jogging robot overlords.
Like the subject says, this doesn't look much different from Honda's ASIMO. The back is a little smaller.
Is it the fact that it "runs" and can recover from falls?
It sounds like a bad nightmare!
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Through inaction? They'll have to rule us just to keep us safe from OURSELVES!! SONY, end the maddness before its too late!
Quack, quack.
1) Will this lead to improved AIBO robots?
2) Is Sony planning on building a robotic housekeeper?
3) How long before we have mechs?
I know that last question sounds silly, but I do wonder if we ever will have humanoid robots to augment our abilities. A super-strength robot suit (AKA lots of Anime, Animatrix, Alien movies, etc.)
God lord, I'm ashamed to be an member of the human race these days. What is wrong with you people? With comments like "Boring" , or can it drive me home after I get drunk at the bar, or "We went to the moon suposedly." How can you go through life and show so little interest in the world around you that you don't even bother to try to understand it? How has this generation become so jaded that they toss their head in scorn and boredom at such an incredable accomplishment? I honestly belive that if we were going to the moon for the first this year people would be saying "Big deal! It's not like it's that far away or anything. I mean I can see it from my backyard for christ sake! When does the Play Station 3 come out? I'm bored" What happpend? How can an entire generation adopt technology to the point where most of their waking lives revolve around technology and not understand the incredable amount of work and research to produce a dynamic balancing system displayed in these robots. How is it possible to have such mushy thinking that you look at the evidence and yet still belive it would be easier to pull one over on the entire world than go to the moon and land there despite entire industries that were biult to accomplish the task? In short.... Have we always been this fxxking stupid as a race?
The MIT Leg Lab went through several generations. Raibert, back in the 1980s, had the big insight - legged locomotion is about balance, not gait. He worked on one-legged hoppers to force the issue, with considerable success. But the approach he used was something of a hack. He used undertuned PD control loops that, in a steady state, got to the right place at the right time. But this didn't generalize to hills, turns, slippery surfaces, etc.
Raibert went off to do a startup, which moved away from dynamics and towards kinematic graphical simulations for military training. The Leg Lab was taken over by Pratt, who was more of an motor/actuator engineer. Not too much exciting happened in the Pratt era, although the drive mechanics got better. Pratt tried to build a legged walker from 1998 to 2001, but he left in 2001 and took the unfinished walker with him.
The Leg Lab was then taken over by someone interested in rehab and proesthetic devices. The Leg Lab website hasn't been updated since 2001.
video of robots at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/17/national /main563855.shtml
These are the exact reasons that Asimov used in his novels. Basically, it's easier to buy a single robot that can operate many different machines than to buy a new robot to replace each of those machines.
This is especially true for household robots. The Romba is a great little vacuum cleaner, but it can't open doors. Heck, it can't even pick up any small objects it needs to vacuum under.
The practical use for these robots (especially to the Japanese) are as household assistants for the elderly. They need to be humanoid to do the things that humans do. It's just a nice side benefit that humans are trained from birth to interact well with smaller humanoid shapes.
We're too busy living the fine life and getting laid. Notice the Wright brothers were both bachelors. Ever try getting permission to set up a machine shop from the city planners, homeowner's insurance company, and your wife?
Even if you could build a mega-corporation like Sony, would you be spending the profit on robots?
With high-speed batting robot they can play baseball.
Wake up and see.
Isn't running by definition means that both of your feet have to be completely off the ground at some point? That's why there's walking and there's running. What I'm seeing here (at least from the video clips) is very fast walking. Very impressive, don't get me wrong, but still -- this is not running.
In Japan linux runs you.
or is it?
In Japan Linux Robots run you.
Oh and,
I for one welcome our new......
you get the idea....
I don't want a pickle; I just want a Motor-Cycle! A four foot cop arrived with a five foot gun!
Almost dead on. The latest version has 3 processors, and the FPGA is mainly for stereo. Last I heard they have not upgraded them to the 600MHz processors that the latest Aibo has (from the earlier 400MHz ones), but that may have changed in the last few months. You sound like an Robocup legged league participant, are you?
Anyone else think these think look a lot like the Cybermen?
The configuration may not be the most adept at any one particular type of motion, but the humanoid design allows for a greater range in the types of motion that could be accomodated in the first place. And in an unpredictable environment, versatility can mean the difference between accomplishing the desired goal and having spent half a billion dollars on an essentially useless lump of metal that can't get past an unforseen obstacle.
We would design robots the way we are built for what amounts to the same reason in hindsight that evolution built us the way we are: adaptability.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The same could be said about the people attempting flight 100 years ago. It certainly wasn't practical or useful then.
Both feet leaving the ground may also be skipping, and not running. Which is if the case sony has also invented the first gay robot.
From story #4 on the QRIO homepage:
"QRIO can connect to the internet and share the kind of information you like to hear!"
Great. So I buy a robot, and it's instantly a felon, just for playing a few mp3's.
*sigh*
Bicentennial Man is the movie, it credits Positronic Man (a Silverberg collaborative with the late Asimov, as the book it the movie was based on. Not sure how exactly you collabrate with a dead person. That may be a badly written reference meaning they were both alive when they worked together, or just a nice way of saying Silverberg took the story and added content after Asimov passed away.)
:)
The Bicentennial Man is Asimov's orignal work, which I belive is actually a short story, though I can't confirm that.
I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
Wow, those robots have got it goin' on!
Does Sony offer dance lessons?
Some would call it overkill, I call it fun. ~Chris Hammond
~Chris Hammond
The robots are taking over the jobs of factory workers, car painters, and assembly line employees, and now we know who's next...
Watch your back, Riverdance!
~Chris Hammond
That looked pretty humanoid to me, but maybe not enough for Sony.
"All it takes to fly is to hurl yourself at the ground... and miss." - Douglas Adams
Was that before or after I pretended to keel over from an asthma attack?
~Chris Hammond
No, you see, that little blue light on their chest is really a 'turbo' button, but they didnt press it in the video clips for fear of being trampled by mechanical elves.
~Chris Hammond
yeah, i've been reading a lot of the posts arguing back and forth about Asimov's three laws etc, but all i keep thinking is:
we can't build systems that don't have bugs, the probability of there being large numbers of robots in deployment to the point where everyone gets used to them, until one day some hitherto completely unexpected situation results in large numbers of berserk robots destroying everything, is almost 100%.....
The end is nigh!
So enough of the "robot rights" and "robot soldier" comments, these are just embarassing.
:-)
I guess that mine is one of the comments you find embarassing. If you read it carefully, you'll see that I do not refer to robot rights anywhere. I refer to rights for sentient creatures.
If you can prove to me that a machine is intelligent and self-aware, capable of independent, creative thought, and all the other things that we consider to define "(human) intelligence", then it deserves to have the same rights that we would wish to have ourselves.
This has nothing to do with cuteness, or being anthropomorphic - I don't care if it's humanoid, insectoid, gaseous, or a cube sat in the corner plugged into the mains. If it is sentient, and intelligent, it deserves rights.
Other than that, I agree with you, mostly. Bipedal robots are a hard problem - much, much easier to give it wheels, or tracks, or at least enough legs that balancing and standing upright become easier.
As for this thing, yes it's a toy, but toys matter too, even if they're not pushing the boundaries of modern robotics; try telling my daughter otherwise
As has been commented, a majority of real humans do not have basic human rights, and probably never will.
That's an example of what I'm talking about - sentient, intelligent creatures denied what we consider to be essential, basic rights. The fact that they happen to be human is irrelevant to me, to be honest. Show me an AI that fits the bill, and I'll fight for its rights too.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Personally, I can't wait to equip mine with weapons and play a slightly updated version of Rock'em Sock'em Robots with my friends.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Watching the Matrix made me think that the machines that enslave us would be very ugly.
I never considered that they would actually be cute. I guess it makes sense though. We're much less likely to be on the defensive when we're surrounded by a bunch of cute cuddly robots with great big smily anime-like eyes.
Despite what EULAs say, most software is sold, not licensed.
That's bullshit. We'll make them too much like man, and they'll start freaking people out. In turn, we'll have to start making them look less human, say... almost-human but with a giant eraser for a head.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
baboom-tish!
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
Are we nerds or no? I would have expected any discussion even touching on the legal rights of AI machines to mention Ray Kuzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines. Don't know who he is? Don't know who perhaps the GREATEST INVENTOR of the past 50 years is??!! Have a gander at this short bio, you will be glad you did.
Fuck me, that's classy.
They should release a video where some teenager puts the boot in... how does it react to being kicked across the room?
If you have True AI the intelligence would need to transcend these rules and thus would be able to make that determination on it's own.
We want intelligence, and yet we want control, and yet no creature with much intelligence allows itself to be controled except for it's own benefit (and in making that determination it's already defied true control).
here
I think I speak for most of us here when I say, you disturb me.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
I just want to point out that if we give the robots rights, we can no longer enslave them and have them do our bidding. Enslaving a robot would be a violation of its rights.
And when I say enslaving, I mean using him to do your bidding, like 'vaccum the floor, robot.' If the robot was sentient and intelligent enough to be granted rights, the owner would be treating the robot as slaves were treated by their masters not all that long ago.
It is really important to rememer that if we wish to create a machine to do our work for us, that it would be the ultimate cruelty to give him the ability to feel pain and hurt - because that is what us humans will make the poor bloody thing feel.
Directive 4: Any attempt to arrest an executive employeee of OCP results in shutdown.
Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
You make them REALLY big and give them lasers
don't you watch any cartoons?
A blog about stuff.
really, the only thing it needed was something to run from...
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
I'm sorry is that a picture of a robat dancing with fans on that page? Haaha thats awesome. How long will it be before we have robots around the house to cook, clean and entertain us as well?
I couldn't think of a sig.
No. At least not yet. I would rather get a real living thing instead called a Puppy !! Who will be living with me, play with me, have own emotions, try to please me, communicate with me, and even guard my house !!
But still, a great leap in technological advancement.... kudos to Sony for making Robots a consumer product!
I got my QRIO home and turned it on, it looked at me and said "I'll be back" and promptly headed for the gun cabinet.
If it can walk, it can crawl. It has on board high resolution cameras and wireless networking capabilities.
Send a bunch of them to mars. Have them collect mineral samples to a centralized lab/solar panel/bot recharger. As long as they can survive entry and bouncing around the ground.
It could perform search and assist functions in collapsed buildings. People die of dehydration in those situations. Send QRIO down there to crawl around the rubble (although dogs/humans are cheaper)
It could run the pullstring through the rafters or under the floorboards when I install cat5 runs.
I could remotely control it from home and never have to go into the office again. If someone needs me to look at something, I simply have them place the QRIO in front of the monitor/keyboard and type stuff out.
Wow, these are less than the price of a new car, and I could "rent" them to corporations who wanted to outsource their IT departments. An army of QRIOs controlled by some sweatshop labor in india, i'll make a mint!
QRIO??? Who came up with that gem. "Yeah, check out our new awesome robot! It's called queerio and it... Hey, stop it, why are you giggling?"
I think the difference between Japanese and American goals for technology is amazing. While most American technological advancement is justified by possible military applications, the Japanese just want synchronized dancing robots.
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If you run over his RC car in the street, should we send you to prison for murder?
Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005
This is just a "Chuck E. Cheese" in japan..