Slashdot Mirror
Linux-Powered Humanoid Robot on Sale Friday
An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices is reporting that a run of 100 Linux-powered humanoid robots goes on sale this Friday in Japan. From the article: 'priced at 1.5M Yen (about $14,000), not including 10,000 Yen (~$90) monthly service fees. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries conceived of Wakamuru as a pleasant companion offering a range of electronic-age valet services'."
between beowulf clusters and robot overlords, how is a troll to control him(her)self?
Johns: Well, how does it look now? Riddick: Looks clear.
I'll now buy about a 100 of them to stop my Windows-powered spybots...
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
"Mitsubishi says it has tried to create a robot that can sustain meaningful relationships with human beings, initiating conversations with family members and offering services such as alarm, news, weather, and email dictation. The device can look after the house, provide video streams over cellular networks, and cull useful information over the Internet, while maintaining its own autonomous "rhythm of life," the company says"
so.. what good is that the product is a 'robot' instead of being a program sold to run on your already existing computers?
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
...too many humans with a wide circular base, most of them have legs. I suppose the top half is fairly humanoid, but whenever the phrase "humanoid robot" is used I tend to assume something that walks upright on legs of some kind, rather than something with wheels.
Still, looks like a cool piece of kit...
Game dev and music blog
what?
don't look at me like that!
Get the humanoid
Get the humanoid
I can think of many more useful ways of spending that much of money... probably a 12 node beowulf cluster?
Looks similar to Davros.
"Wakamaru's claimed battery life is two hours, after which the robot returns to its charging station before power fails completely." Hmmm - I hope it knows how far it is back to the charging base......
That's freaky. Those pictures...they are going to haunt me dreams tonight.
1,5M Yen and it still can't climb stairs. Sure is cheaper than a Dalek though, and (hopefully) with less genocidal tendencies.
Will wank off Linus Torvalds for fame.
but of course this would not break gpl but manufactor's license.
I see it provides valet services. How long before some lonely Linux geek programmes it to provide 'maid' services?
...and I've been a good - *fairly* good boy all year!
I just went through to the proper homepage and read the FAQ.
One of the questions is:
Do I need to sign up with an Internet provider to use "wakamaru"?
A "wakamaru" needs a continuous broadband connection, but if you don't have your own provider, when you purchase "wakamaru" it may be possible to have Internet service included.
Why would it need a broadband connection?
Apart from anything, it connects during its charging sessions, but just what information could it need?
liqbase
Looks like a marriage between Hara Chrisna and Lego mindstorm. I love it already!
You can get it fast, you can get it good, You can get it cheap. Pick two!
"Wakamaru's claimed battery life is two hours, after which the robot returns to its charging station before power fails completely. It maintains Internet access and communications capabilities while charging, Mitsubishi says."
Man - they managed to make this robot resemble a geek real good. And even improving the standard geek. I mean - mainitaining internet access while you sleep? Man - I'm so there!
Underholdning.info
Grobot looks like a gnome. Krobot looks like a troll.
Oh wait...
linux powered robots sell you!!
Does it dump core? And how about panicing?
You don't know what you don't know.
First thing first..
how hard will it be to hack fleshlight into it?
Timang tinggi tinggi
parang sudah asah
alang alang mandi
biar sampai basah
I downloaded it right away, because IMHO it is a nice browser BUT I have uninstalled it right away because it is not supported by NetVibes. I've just made it my homepage as I find it really cool.
..
Sorry opera... it seems the "Impersonate Explorer 6" is not working
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Because that would rock.
Yeah, but does it plays Ogg and iTunes musics ?
...like I am for my robot project.
Basically, I have grown sick of the whole "BSD is dying" "Oh no it isn't!" arguments and have decided to settle the matter once and for all.
As such, I am currently completing the construction of a 200 foot tall killer robot equipped with nuclear tipped missiles, dual chainsaw attachments and the obligatory friggin' laser beams coming out if its head.
Once finished, I am going to set it to work tracking down every last BSD developer on the planet and executing them in a variety of colourful ways (starting with that asshole Theo of course). When the project is complete, we will all know that BSD is in fact dead.
So why not use Linux I hear you ask? Simple - it's the GPL licence. Obviously my robot requires a lot of proprietary code - device drivers for the death rays and odour recognition software (I figure this is the easiest way to track down open source programmers) to name but two.
If I had chosen the GPL, I would be forced to release this code back to the community. And then it's just a matter of time before some gawky twat with an Apple Newton somehow uploads a virus and foils my plans. The BSD licence enables me to keep this code secret which I'm sure you'll agree is a huge benefit to my project.
Hooray for BSD! Goodbye karma!
It looks like 2005 will finally be the Year of the Linux-Powered Humanoid Robot! (Too bad that it's a bit big to fit on a desktop.)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
rescue initiative/mandate continues, despite strong objections/fatal behaviours, exhibited by whoreabull corepirate nazi felon execrable.
neither process is a big surprise to many of US?
'vote' with (what's left in) yOUR wallet. help bring an end to unprecedented evile's manifestation through yOUR owned felonious corepirate nazi life0cidal glowbull warmongering execrable.
some of US should consider ourselves very fortunate to be among those scheduled to survive after the big flash/implementation of the creators' wwwildly popular planet/population rescue initiative/mandate.
it's right in the manual, 'world without end', etc....
as we all ?know?, change is inevitable, & denying/ignoring gravity, logic, morality, etc..., is only possible, on a temporary basis.
concern about the course of events that will occur should the corepirate nazi life0cidal execrable fail to be intervened upon is in order.
'do not be dismayed' (also from the manual). however, it's ok/recommended, to not attempt to live under/accept, fauxking nazi felon greed/fear/ego based pr ?firm? scriptdead mindphuking hypenosys.
consult with/trust in yOUR creators. providing more than enough of everything for everyone (without any distracting/spiritdead personal gain motives), whilst badtolling unprecedented evile, using an unlimited supply of newclear power, since/until forever. see you there?
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
...to avoid functional social interaction. Wouldn't it be cheaper to actually make some friends?
ok, as it is running linux, it will not crash every 10 minutes or so ... but are there some applications out already? any cooking or cleaning rooms programmes around? this is not a lot of money, if this is a usefull part of furniture, but it is not really usefull if it just stands around or walks around doing nothing. this i can do myself much better than any robot :D
for a rolling duck with arms? I don't give a f*** what it runs inside, you can keep it.
It runs linux... does this mean people will try to port windows to it?
is it available in any color other than bath-duck yellow?
Augh!!! my eyes...
need a free COBOL editor for Windows?
from the terrible secrets of space!
Now that this is out, this robot's look is certainly fightening enough to keep the burglars away.
That's one awesome piece of hardware.. :D
In future those things can be really useful. I've allways wanted automagic coffee machine which can hoover too.
wow, cong modding offtopic based on it looking too real.
Well, guess my sed "s/serve man/kill all humans" script will be entertaining after all.
The first rule of USENET is you do not talk about USENET.
"It recognizes names given it by users, Mitsubishi says."
I'm going to call mine "Rosie".
Wouldn't it be easier, and cheaper, to buy a dog and tape your schedule to it?
This is bad. This is very bad. Computers and robots will soon join together and take over the world.
And since it's Linux we can't deactivate them with BSOD.
Am I the only one that thinks we should prepare for the coming of our new robot masters?
And no terrible actors whose initials are K. R. wearing sunglasses will save us this time.
Do you Gentoo?
...if there's one thing that the history of technology teaches us, it's that successful devices do work by slavishly imitating the way a human being would do it.
In early SF, humanoid robots washed dishes. Automatic dishwashers are common, but they do not have robotic hands that pick up plates and scrub brushes over them and then wipe them with cloths.
We spend less time cooking, but not because we have robotic cooks. Or, at least, not in our homes. What we have instead is a distribution system for meals (or major components thereof--entrees, frozen vegetable mixtures) that are prepared and cooked factories, shipped frozen or refrigerated, and heated in microwaves.
We do not have humanoid robots that play pianos or violins. We do not even have player pianos or "orchestrions" in the home. Instead, we have CD players and iPods.
A humanoid robot may evoke a pleasant retro nostalgia, but it makes about as much sense as an ornithopter.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
If this robot fought the Honda robot, which would win?
Ignore Alien Orders
No laser cannons. Fewer legs than an AIBO. Lame
Paul Leader
I saw one of these at Expo2005 in Aichi. It's voice has pretty good intonation and it makes nice genstures and the like. For a normal adult the attraction would wear off pretty soon, but I can picture kids just loving it. It could probably make do as a babysitter provided your house doesn't have stairs.
Since your UID is smaller than mine, I can only conclude that you're trolling. -s20451 (410424)
The name "Wakamaru" is yet another Japanese pun (much like "Pokemon" was a combination of "Poketto" (pocket) and "Monstaa" (monster) to yield a word that sounded like "bakemon," (supernatural creature)), this time a combination of "wakai" (young) and "-maru" (suffix for male names) to yield a word that means "little one," while also sounding like "wakaru," which means "to understand."
Doesn't it make you wish our product names were as clever?
...welcome our Linux-Powered Robot overlords.
w00t
That may be completely true. But, often times, we just like someone to listen. Take Eliza for example. People have obcessed (and some still do) over "her". She was pretty dumb, but smart enough to just keep the conversation going.
/., it never failed to impress those who don't really care how the "trick" is pulled off. Everyone talks/yells/whines to their computer. Nobody usually expects it to answer them. I only removed the setup for 2 reasons. Speech recognition ate up a ton of space and cpu, and Hal was not easily programmable. Other than that, if I could have it back, I most certainly would. It would be nice to ask another "Hal" questions to look up on Google while I wrote out my replies here.
It's like talking to yourself, which seems pointless, unless you consider that most people talk to themselves to work through things anyways. Having an actual robot might breath new life into Eliza, but adding some movements, facial expressions, and a humanoid body; where as there is no confusing a computer with a computer.
Besides, people paid cold cash for pet rocks and sea monkeys, so it doesn't exactly take a genius to give something meaning that logically should not. It's just a new coat of paint on a program that hasn't really been upgraded by any significance. The #1 chat bot to date is A.L.I.C.E., and it's nothing more than Eliza on XML. Still, it's impressive how much we can fool ourselves with it, especially if it understood speech and had a face.
I had a bot called Hal once. I also have some Dragon Speech software. The great thing about Hal was that he could perform tasks, like check the weather, read e-mail, or look up phone numbers. Using speech recognition, I could litterally talk with my computer (throwing in the occasional "Enter.")
And while this would impress nobody on
"Hey, Hal, what's the link to the Alice Chat Bot? Copy that to the clipboard."
Doh, no Hal, you'll have to look it up yourself.
I8-D
of Rocky 4... It had that freaky robot maid in there that the brother-in-law tried to hook up with. Of course, that could explain the hair the dude had. Human is incompatabile with the 120V recepticle.
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
They got the dimensions and colors about right, but the should've made it a penguin
"What?"
"I don't understand!"
"Where's the tea?"
According to the article:
The name "wakamaru" derives from the childhood nickname of Minamoto Yoshitsune, a twelfth-century Japanese Samurai who engineered military victories that enabled his brother Yoritomo to gain control of Japan. The name is associated with "growth" and "development," the company says
Is it just me though, or does the robot comprehensively fail the "looking remotely masculine despite having a masculine name" test?
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Yeah, right.
Give the thing fingers, hips and legs and then maybe call it humanoid.
That was pretty funnny... Untill you consider that most users (except *nix/wine users) _do_ pay for IE.. :P
I think I saw that in a Will Smith film.
Does it run Windows?
not able to offer anything more then standard responses (such as "really?" "I see" "that's good news" "that's bad news".
Why do you say that?
617B3B7F7E7C7D7F00EOF
Humanoid with open sores....
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
"This is going to be the best prom ever!"
the coolest club on
...will it follow the three laws?
If it can't shove around the blind people or push bread down thier throats, I don't want it.
Is that it doesn't include a built in vaccume.
Please, someone MOD the parent FUNNY!
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
It sounds like it has no useful functionality beyond being a mobile internet terminal.
its a shame that this really appears to be a way to establish the first robot product marketing strategy (i.e. ongoing montlhy service contract) rather than actually providing a product that the public needs.
djeet? (did you eat?)
No,djoo? (no, did you?)
lezeetden (let's eat then)
Ok so my questions:
* how usable are those mitten-like hand things? can it fetch me a beer from the fridge? or just order a beer online to be delivered?
* does it include a Roomba? If it's going to be rolling around my apartment anyway...
* with a 10,000 word vocabulary, what kind of conversation can you have with it? i'm imagning a weird sort of Japanese "Eliza" (Eriza?). "Why do you think it is imporant to wake up at 6:00?"
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
10,000 Yen == $90?
They have a serious inflation in japan...
run Linux? oh wait ...
FRY: You're cute!
LIU-BOT: You're cute!
FRY: You!
LIU-BOT: You!
FRY: You!
LIU-BOT: You!
FRY: You!
PROFESSOR FARNSWORTH: Oh dear! She's stuck in an infinite loop and he's an idiot. Well, that's love for you...
Q: Does this make me look fat? A:No, but your ass does!
Don't blame me, I voted for Cthulhu.
The three laws of Robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
4. (hidden) MS Windows is dangerous to human beings and robots alike.
Asimov's "Three Laws" robots (not the Will Smith travesties) were predicated on immutable hardcode for trustworthy, though often surprisingly novel behavior. Linux robots can run anything we want to apt-get. How are these droids safe from attack and "upgrade" by a slaver?
--
make install -not war
Jeebus fscking Chrayst!!!!... This deservers an Insightflull mod by itself, although the rest of the post almost made me fall asleep....
Didn't these guys see what happened on BSG? /sigh
The Cylons were created by Man.
They Rebelled.
They Evolved.
They Look and Feel Human.
Some are programmed to think they are Human.
There are many copies.
And they have a Plan.
It's nothing to do with 'wakaru'. 'Maru' is not a suffix for male names but a term of endearment / admiration; it can also be applied to women, buildings, weapons and ships although only the latter usage is still active.
The actual name was 'ushiwakamaru', meaning 'little calf' or something.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
This robot doesn't have legs. What makes it hummanoid? For $14000 one would expect at least this. I recently bought this one - http://www.ixs.co.jp/eco-robot.html Not only it is 14 times cheaper (~$1000) but I assembled it myself and it can do a lot of things a real human can do.
You all imply that the can opener is the least likely to be associated with sex. The parent did say "Gets You Sex". I have no doubt that when the electric can opener was introduced to the public, there were plenty of men who bought one because the knew that bringing it home to their wife was going to get them some hot nasty sex. Same goes for the microwave oven, the automatic dish washer, and the automatic clothes washer.
Hire a four-year old. Cheaper, smarter, cuter, much better conversation, can climb stairs and can actually do the things that Mitsubishi claims for the robot plus much more.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
WONDERFUL! Now I can have some 1337 h4x0r break into my robot and re-program him to do all kinds of nasty (and hopefully not homocidal) things.
Christ, even if they did have plastic robots you could insert your penis into for ejaculation purposes, why the fuck would you want to?
I could be glib and say, "Quit jacking off to hardcore porn, go out, find yourself a real flesh and blood woman, and get laid," but the problem with someone looking to hump a bunch of gears with plastic stretched over them is bigger than that, I think.
If you're the kind of person who dislikes women so much that you'd rather cum in a pile of servomotors, you either have some problems with narcissism or probably have some sort of attachment or anxiety disorder and should be getting help. Sorry to be so blunt, but sometimes the truth hurts.
The point isn't just imitating humans but that someday they'll take over our monotonous work for us.
Yes, we have the dishwasher, oven, stove, refrigerator, blenders, etcetera. But do we really spend less time cooking (okay, I'm not a TV dinner man) or on housework?
In a word: yes! I don't think you realize just how hard people used to have to work!
On the TV show _19th Century House_, they pointed out that the women typically spent several *days* out of a week just on boiling up all the laundry in vats, to make it clean. That took a lot of work; to do one thing, there's a lot of precursor steps. To do the laundry, you need to bring in the wood and keep the fire burning and draw the water to boil the water to fill the tub to dissolve the lye to the clean the clothes. And you have to keep it hot, so you have to keep boiling water, and you have to keep stirring it, and so forth: it was a real pain.
Today, I drop my clothes in the washer, dump in some soap and some quarters, come back in 1/2 hr, dump everything in the dryer, and I'm *done*!
I drop my TV dinner in the microwave, like I did last night, and 5 minutes later, I have something to eat.
I have running water in my house; but my Dad didn't when he was a boy. He says modern plumbing saves time; and I think he's right.
It takes time to go outside to the well, and pump water. It takes time to walk to the outhouse (you don't want it *too* near the house, but not *too* far, either!). It takes time to carefully haul up the bucket of milk that you're trying to keep down in well. It takes time to rummage about in the storage cellar to find the food you're going to cook, as opposed to yanking something out of the freezer in your cosy apartment.
Try scrubbing a floor without a mop (just a rag and some water). It sucks: mops are good technology. Modern cleansers are good technology; try scrubbing with boiling water versus scrubbing with Vim, Comet, or any other modern replacement.
They're not just more sanitary; they get the job done better *and* faster.
How many hours a day did you spend heating your house this winter?
When I was a boy, I used to light the wood stove every morning; it took about twenty minutes of intermittant attention before it was really self-sustaining. The night before, I'd spend half an hour hauling up wood from the shed to the house. On the weekends, I'd spend a few hours cutting and stacking wood.
Today, I just fumble my way out of bed, and turn up the thermostat.
We do save a lot of time. We just don't appreciate it.
--
AC
I think the problem isn't so much about 'wanting' to hump a robot, but it's the age-old geek problem of appealing to a real flesh-and-blood female. You need social skills, and have to jump through all sorts of hoops. After several failures, a Rubbermaid Ejacula may start to look like a good low-maintenance alternative. A robot wouldn't care if you bathe or not, whether you've memorized the list of correct things to say, and could be trained to download and discuss /. articles, possibly while providing services.
"Mitsubishi Heavy Industries conceived of Wakamuru as a pleasant companion offering a range of electronic-age valet services."
To my ear, that translates roughly to "Your plastic pal who's fun to be with!"
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." -- Voltaire
http://images.google.com/images?q=sleestak Now I can get a yellow one!
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Thanks for proving my point.
/. articles, possibly while providing services"
First you say:
"but it's the age-old geek problem of appealing to a real flesh-and-blood female"
then you give your real answer:
"A robot wouldn't care if you bathe or not, whether you've memorized the list of correct things to say, and could be trained to download and discuss
Honestly, when you'd rather imagine getting sucked off by a glorified vacuum cleaner while reading Slashdot instead of talking to a real girl, you've got some serious issues that need to be dealt with. If you conceptualize conversation with a woman as "memorizing a list of the correct things to say", this is a big part of your problem.
Neither good sex nor a good relationship is a chore. Both should be exciting and rejuvenating to you most of the time. Connecting with a girl really doesn't have anything to do with "social skills" at all. That's just a cop out. Bathing every day doesn't take social skills.
Most of the "Rubbermaid Ejacula" fetishists really are just saying, "I'm too selfish and too scared to make the effort. Just let me wallow in my own filth."
Sad.
Somebody called for you. I didn't take a message.
So you won't have a clue this time either.
Lighten up, dude. It's supposed to be +Funny, based on several geek culture stereotypes. Perhaps it's over your head.
But more importantly, I said nothing about the content of my imagination; I only dealt with physical alternatives to "having to take matters into your own hands". And your minimization of sociophobic problems is not appropriate for a forum such as Slashdot. Off to kuro5hin with you, you misguided metrosexual.
Lighten up, dude. It's supposed to be +Funny,
Dude, you know as well as I do that half of these posts are dead serious. Here's one. And it is sad. I'm not minimizing their need for help, I'm maximizing it.
WTF is a metrosexual?
It's the design that sucks, not the color. I redesigned it.
/rotation. Granted, they wouldn't be as strong as hydralics/pneumatics, but it would sure simplify construction a lot and give more freedom to the designer (ie. me, who is too lazy to draw real working joints). Maybe a combo would work.
I think it would be really interesting if someone invented good ball-joint servos with full movement
The Chair Corp. comic(*00-12)
*** astroturf alert *** /. member to alert the community to an insidious anti-geek plot:
/. mindset. (Future plans include shutting down RealDoll.com, DRM legislation and more evil robot movie marathons.) Lonely, impressionable geeks, already ostracized for thier nerditry, are being manipulated to believe that robot love is wrong! When the time comes, these poor lost souls will be forced into the dating agency game, as the DRMed robots won't be allowed to perform. Oh yes, I know.
/. nerds to get out more?
It is my duty as a
A large online dating service has done marketing research and discovered that nerds and geeks make up the majority of their customers. More research has turned up the fact that robots pose a huge threat to their business model, which depends on a large pool of desperate horny men willing to pay for assistance in their search for relief. As part of the plan to fight the robots, a fake grassroots campaign is underway to ridicule any positive man/robot discussions. Slashdot has been identified as a major target for this propaganda. Posts of September 20, @11:17AM and September 20, @01:35PM are examples of the tactics being used in this desperate attempt to sway the
Alfred James Tanner, President
Man-Robot Love Association
_____________
Seriously though, no-one in their right mind really wants to have sex with a robot; it's just technology helping people jerk off. Although I have no interest in sex with robots, I think it would solve a whole lotta problems if there was an orgasmatron in every house.
Anyway, thanks for playing! It's been very entertaining.
* metrosexual - google is your friend. For additional insight, watch South Park episode 708; it shows how western society is being undermined by forces encouraging more social interaction, more attention to personal grooming, basically the opposite of nerd culture. Reminded me of you and your rah-rah have a bath, get out there and mingle advice. (Although a rather lame episode, it did give us 'Crab People', for which I am grateful.)
Another alternate theory: are you a homely nerd girl, hoping to increase your chances of getting laid by encouraging