Slashdot Mirror
Two-Legged Home Robot, Coming Soon To Japan
An anonymous reader submits "Two Japanese companies, (ZMP corp., and Mizuno, a athletic goods manufacturer), announced that they will start selling the first two-legged robot for home use. The robot, called nuvo, will retail for 500,000 yen. It wil be able to understand 1,000 (Japanese) words, dance, and allow the owner to contact the robot via 3G phones."
Since nobody has noted it yet, 500,000 yen is about $4,500.
Source: http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic
The 2-pair-of-shoes bipedal robot which can play at home is put on the market just over or below [ one ] 500,000 yen also at the end of this year. It was opened to the public on the 2nd by "nuvo (?-bow)" which the venture business "ZMP" of robot development and Mizuno, a major sporting-goods company, developed jointly. The loan but for advertisement of a company famous is a center, generally "QRIO (KYURIO)" of Sony and "ASIMO (ASHIMO)" of Honda turn a 2-pair-of-shoes bipedal robot, and sale is new. nuvo is the height of 39cm, and the weight of 2.5km. It walks all around, and when it falls, supine and either which lies prone also rise by himself. About 1000 words of a conversation level are made to be memorized every day, and it salutes or dances according to directions. A camera is built in a face. The screen seen from the robot is checked from a going-out place using the 3rd generation cellular phone of NTT DoCoMo, and it becomes the "surveillance robot" which can also do remote control. The cost of development lessened this joint and held down the price. 3000 or more sets of sale are expected in the first year. (03/03 08:02)
Here is a translation in... well, something like English.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
The fish sucks for japanese, use excite.co.jp instead:
excite translation
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
It has a funny way of walking! Watch the video.
But it won't do the dishes, though...
A two-legged robot that can play at home will be sold at the end of the year at 500,000 yen (less than $5,000) per robot. Robot development venture ZMP and Sportswear maker Mizuno jointly developed "nuvo" -- released on March 2.
Among two-legged robots, Sony's QRIO and Honda's ASIMO are popular. Howver, they are mostly rented out, and serve purposes of advertisement -- not aimed at sale to the general public.
nuvo is 39 cm tall, 2.5 kg. It can walk in all four directions, and when it falls in either direction, it can get up with its own strength. It can be taught 1,000 words for daily colloquial speech. It can also do such things as bowing and dancing upon being instructed.
The face has a built-in camera. Using a 3G cell phone, images viewed by the robot can be confirmed, and remote operation can be practiced, making it a surveilance robot.
Joints, which are costly to develop, were minimized to lower its price. The companies look forward to selling 3,000 items by the beginning of next year.
here of press event, hosted at PC watch. The robot can recover from fallen down state by himself. Enjoy
Here is a rough translation of this article. It is late, sue me. :)
At the end of the year, for 500,000 yen (approx. $5000) it will be possible to take home a new bipedal robot. Created jointly by a venture company (ZMP) and Mizuno Sports, the NUVO, as it's called, was revealed for 2 days.
While Sony's QRIO and Honda's ASIMO made bipedal robots famous for advertising, it is rare to have a robot directed at the general buyer.
NUVO, stands at a height of 39 cm and has a weight of 2.5 kgs. The robot can walk forwards and back, left and right, and if it happens to fall down, it is able to pick itself back up. In addition, the robot understands in the reach of about 1000 words, and it can preform various functions such as bowing and dancing.
Also, with a camera located in its head, NUVO owners can use NTT Docomo 3G Cell phone technology to see what the robot is seeing, and also control the robot from a distance.
The cost breakup was not given, but around 3000 units are expected to sell at the beginning of next year.
500,000 Yen = 3,996.48 dollars.
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
A google news link.
you may be interested in this:
Mobility on planetary surfaces: may walking machines be a vable alternative.pdf
#
#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
#
A two legged robot that you can play with in your home will be available as early as the end of this year for 500000 yen. Venture company ZMP and sports equipment company Mizuno, together announced on the 2nd.
As for 2 legged robots, Sony's QRIO and Honda's ASIMO are famous, but they are mainly for publicity purposes and are rarely purchased for general use.
nuvo is 39 centimeters, and 2.5 kilograms. It can walk forward, backward, left, or right, and if it falls, can get up automatically from any position. It can be taught about 1000 words, follow directions, (something [jishiki?]) or dance.
In the head is a camera. Using NTT DoCoMo 3rd generation phones, you can see from the robot's perspective, and use it as a remote controlled "security robot".
Minimizing the use of joints allowed the cost to remain low. Over 3000 orders are expected by the new year.
Damn Babelfish... but they'll never put ME out of a job! (yet)
Here's my translation:
"A robot that can play in your household is going to be sold by the end of the year for roughly 5,000,000 yen. [translator's note: i.e. a lot of sushi] Both ZMP and maker of sports goods Mizuno, both having collaborated in this venture, have developed a robot called "nuvo", which was displayed to the public on the 2nd of this month.
[translators note: the robot's actual japanese characters are a bit cheeky.... one hiragana "nu" and one katakana "bo"... so it's name actually breaks typical Japanese writing traditions)]
Whilst the the two-legged robot "Qrio" from Sony and the "Asimo" from Honda are well-known, the marketing budgets for these robots haven't really been aimed at selling themselves to the general public.
Nuvo comes in at 39 centimeteres , and weighs it at 2.5 kilos. It can walk backwards and forwards, as well as left and right. When it falls over it lands on its back and stays down, getting up all by itself. It remembers close to 1000 words of conversation level Japanese, and upon instruction it can bow as well as dance.
It's head contains a built in camera. Utilising NTT DoCoMo's third generation cell phone technology, it is possible to view what the robot sees on the cell-phone's screen, technically becoming a remote control "surveillance robot".
Through the joint venture, it's development costs were held down. It is expected to sell over 3000 units in it's first year of sales."
So yeah, it's one damn small security robot....
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
The mean age in Japan is approaching 70
Uh, I thought that sounded a little rediculus, so I thought I would check around. I was right according to the this: CIA Factbook
The mean and median ages are barely past forty.
A domestic robot that walks on two legs could be on the market at 500,000 yen per unit early next year. Robot development venture ZMP has teamed up with major sports equipment company Mizuno to develop the Nuvo, it was revealed on the 2nd.
Bipedal robots such as Sony's Qrio and Honda's Asimo have already appeared but offerings directed at the general public have been rare.
Nuvo stands 39 cm high and weighs 2.5 kg. It can walk forward, back, left and right and if it falls over it can get up no matter which way up it is. It has a conversational vocabulary of nearly 1,000 words, and can obey an instruction to bow or dance.
The face contains an built-in camera. Using a 3rd generation NTT DoCoMo mobile phone the user can see through the robot's eye, so it can even fuction as a remote-controlled 'guard robot'.
Price was kept low by reducing the amount of expensive-to-develop joints. The makers hope to sell upwards of 3000 units in the first year.
----
Too late to karma whore, but I like translating things...
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
There is an English article at the Japan times
You're over-aggerating. According to the CIA World Fact Book, 18.6% is older than 65, while the median age is 42 (how could it be different ;-). A fertility rate of 1.38 is not very healthy indeed - although 22 countries have an even lower rate, especially is eastern europe. So the fact that those robots mainly come from Japan rather than Europe (or the USA) is not caused by the age structure, but must have other causes.
If you scroll about halfway down the asahi.com article you'll find links to videos labeled [WMP] and [REAL].
Asimo it ain't, but interesting looking (although it seems to have trouble with the "STOP!" command...).