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Toyota's Trumpet Playing Robot Showcased
fsharp writes "The New York Times has an article discussing the first public showing of Toyota's new humanoid robot. During a demonstration, the biped robot played trumpet together with a rolling robot. Most telling about the article was the whole philosophy towards R&D: 'Toyota acknowledges that it is unlikely to turn a profit building robots anytime soon, but the program highlights its engineering-oriented culture and willingness to invest in projects that may not pay off for decades.' How many companies these days are willing to drop money into some technology that may not turn a profit for many years?"
It pisses me off that no American company today would ever do something like this. Our leaders have sold our technological infrastructure out for quick $$$. The boobs may have T-shirts -- made in China, no doubt -- that say "America is #1", but it hasn't been for a long time. Japan and the other Asian countries do all the cool stuff now. Come on, could you see Ford or GM doing this?
Presenters of the music-playing machine found themselves being unmercifully heckled by a man calling himself Mssr. Jacques de Vaucanson, who proclaimed loudly that he had accomplished robotic music more than two hundred years prior to this demonstration.
When the presenters pointed out that Mssr. Vaucanson would have to be long dead as of this late date, the suddenly horrified heckler collapsed into a pile of dust, and the remainder of the presentation was conducted without further interruption.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Why not invest in the technology now? In a few years someone will say, "Hey do you remember that thing we did a few years ago? Well i got a new idea for it" Its far easier to create something out of something than trying to create it out of nothing. Look at Big Billy. He created an empire out of a program Xerox was about to discard. A robot that can play music is one step closer to creating a robot that can do abstraction. Imagine the possiblities...not to mention the future military application....::strokes chin::
I am a trumpet player and I really want to hear this thing!
Imagine if typing was so challenging that you spent 90% of your computer time refining and keeping your typing skills adequate, so you could spend 10% of the time programming...
Anyone have any sound clips?
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
"How many companies these days are willing to drop money into some technology that may not turn a profit for many years?" Check out the MIT Media Lab's list of sponsors: http://www.media.mit.edu/sponsors/sponsors.html Many of these companies have been giving money for years. All so crazy grad students (and profs) can go out and try the "what-ifs" without the companies worrying about reputations being on the line. ;)
Drug companies invest hundreds of millions into researching new medications that may never make it to market. The ones that do take years to research and develop, then they spend many more years testing and then they have to wait for FDA approval.
U.S. auto makers have been testing and developing electric cars for decades. None have ever made a profit from them.
Millions were spent by our government and by companies in researching some far out idea to network computers across the country. That took decades to start paying off.
There are more, but I'll let you post them...
It would behoove many companies to invest more in R&D and less in padding executives pocketbooks with $100's. HP, for example, has gutted their engineering ranks while simultaneously buying jets for the higher-ups. Closer to my region of the country, Caterpillar has outsourced waves of R&D people...and their executives are getting ever-higher bonuses.
> How many companies these days are willing to drop money into some technology that may not turn a profit for many years?"
Aerospace, for one. Working at one of the companies that makes commercial (and military) aircraft engines, it is jokingly quoted that: "A decision to launch a new engine program is a calculated risk to go into the hole for about 20 years" (Meaning it takes about that long to "turn profit" off all the years of design, development, testing, and certication processes.) Imagine how many times the market flops around responding to other market pressures in that length of time.
As an interesting aside for many of you, aircraft engines have historically been sold on the razor/blades business model, so its an interesting business balance between a quality engine that airline customers will buy and the need to sell spares to eventually make money on FAR down the road.
But of course if a drug company spends 7 years developing a drug and starts trying to recoup some of that cost over the next few years everyone will forget the R&D and point out how the drug costs nothing to make and so the company is ripping everyone off. When I worked at a pharmaceutical company there were cases when it took so long to develop a drug that it wasn't worth bringing it to market because the patent would almost have expired by time it was ready for release. (The patent needs to be filed right at the beginning of the testing process.)
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
How many companies these days are willing to drop money into some technology that may not turn a profit for many years?
IBM for example, holds the record for the last few years in patents. They made a processor where atoms funtion as transistors, the smallest form ever. Will they use this in the next 10 years? maybe, but probably not. But when it is used, they will make a lot of money on it and be consulted 1rst most likely.
As I recall, the US Army was suffering from a shortage of bugle players to play taps for the passing generation of soldiers. They developed a digital bugle that can play taps even if the bugler is incompetent, drunk, or both.
Since Toyota has now developed a vastly more complicated technology that can be used to solve the same problem as the slightly complicated one above, I look forward to future Pentagon procurement hearings.
Note to self: Sarcasm in this post often results in massive retribution.
On other news.. I, Robot trailer is now finally available.. Coincidence? I think not.
http://dtum.livejournal.com
I read this and couldn't help thinking about something from Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series. In it, the Earth is invaded by a race of aliens who are accustomed to thinking in terms of millenia, with every undertaking planned generations in advance. The stories mention a formal, court-martial offense whose title translates into English as "Lack of Foresight."
While I do not advocate the stratified, stagnant mentality that Turtledove's invaders, I have to wonder if dragging a few U.S. CEOs in front of a tribunal on charges of "Lack of Foresight" might not be a good idea for American business.
(And, no, passive, placid boards to not count as a "tirbunal" here)
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Here's why:
http://roboticnation.blogspot.com
http://www.plyojump.com/weblog
Robotics, and particularly general-purpose robotics outside the factory floors is very fast-growing market with immense potential markets just a couple short years down the road.
"Simple" innocent entertainment bots like AIBO and QRIO you are seeing now are just a tip of the iceberg. Forget super AI research. It doesnt exactly take fully concious thinking to pour concrete, do the dishes or flip burgers.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
Those that want to still be in existence in many years.
They'll be ready to deploy when the time is right; the others will have to play catchup and most likely decline (or whine about how unfair it is).
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
The prestige that comes from this sort of accomplishment is important for marketing - especially in Japan. As a bonus, they get advances that may make their way into production vehicles. They also attract better caliber engineers by maintaining a reputation as an industry leader.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Why do they build trumpet-playing humanoid robots? For publicity. Why do they invest R&D money in robotics? Because that's how you build a car these days.
Gates' Law: Every 18 months, the speed of software halves.
It makes me wonder, what proportion of trumpet music is actually copyrighted? You'd think they could at least post a clip of it playing a Bb scale. I'm skeptical, and expect that perhaps "Music is unavailable in accordance with copyright protection." really means "our robot sounds like crap." But if I'm wrong, I finally get to replace that friggin trumpet player in my band! (At least it's "my" band until the bass-playing robot is unveiled.)