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Two-Legged Home Robot, Coming Soon To Japan

Posted by timothy on from the for-that-money-it-better-wash-dishes dept.

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."

4 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. A toy? by ObviousGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I guess there's a market for this kind of thing in Japan. The mean age in Japan is approaching 70 and many of these older persons are living alone, so there are a lot of seniors that will require assistance with their daily life. A robot that can fetch medicine or notify the owner that it is time to take medicine or even notify the authorities if the owner doesn't move for more than a specified time.

    More than just "wow, this is cool! Imagine a beowulf cluster of these", this robot is a significant step forward for the assisted-living technological front.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  2. Re:Translation (by me)... by MooCows · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually this thing looks really well made.
    If the voice-recognition in the vid is real, than that too is pretty sophisticated.

    I only wonder how well it's pathfinding works (if there's any)
    If it can't navigate a house there's not much use for it as assistance to a disabled person.

    But for $4000, still an engineering achievement :)

    --
    The path I walk alone is endlessly long.
    30 minutes by bike, 15 by bus.
  3. Legs - why? by Channard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If this really is intended for home use, I'd question the value of legs. Granted, this is from the land that produced Battletech and assorted Mech shows, but we've already seen a robot that can climb stairs on wheels. Surely a wheeled robot would be infinitely more stable that this one. Come home drunk and walk into a wheeled 'bot and you've stubbed your toe a bit. Walk into a walking bot and you could knock it over, damaging and possibly breaking it.

  4. Ok, so you can talk at it by Moderation+abuser · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And it can wiggle.

    That's it?

    But can it do the dishes? Vacuum? Take out the rubbish? Press the TV channel change button?

    --
    Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.