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Fudan Intelligent Robot Learns To Fit In

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the our-little-robot-grows-up dept.

martinsslaves writes "Shanghais' Fudan University have made some considerable progress in their endeavors in learning robots, with their new 'Fudan Intelligent Robot' looking a whole lot more polished than their previous Fudan-1 model. The goal is for the robot to learn new tasks by following voice commands, which the researchers hope could eventually allow the robot to help the elderly or become a 'good household mate' for families. Among other things, the bot can currently can plot out its own map of its surroundings and remember specific locations and, of course, change TV channels at your command (or even serve as a TV itself)."

11 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Robot Succeeded where slashoters fail? by psychicsword · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks like a robot succeeded where many slashdot readers failed... it fits in.

    Lucy Liu bot make me a sandwich everyone else would.

  2. Re:Is it just me? by psychicsword · · Score: 3, Funny

    Could someone explain what's so story-worthy about this bot? It is for the jokes that comes out of it.
  3. Remote Remote by orkysoft · · Score: 5, Funny

    Among other things, the bot can currently can plot out its own map of its surroundings and remember specific locations and, of course, change TV channels at your command (or, as you can see above, even serve as a TV itself)."

    So they finally invented the remote control for the remote control?

    --

    I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
  4. Yeah but by dibblda · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's probably made of lead paint and GHB....

  5. cat threat by xPsi · · Score: 3, Funny

    The goal is for the robot to learn new tasks by following voice commands, which the researchers hope could eventually allow the robot to help the elderly or become a "good household mate" for families. Among other things, the bot can currently can plot out its own map of its surroundings and remember specific locations and, of course, change TV channels at your command (or, as you can see above, even serve as a TV itself). There are a lot of cats out there right now licking themselves acting aloof, pretending like they don't care, but really thinking, "there's no goddamn way I can compete with this thing."
    --
    i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
  6. The Perils of Voice Recognition... by RudeIota · · Score: 5, Funny

    Verbal input to robot:
    "Put my java beans in grinder. Percolate water and coffee. Pour in the mug. Place the mug on my desk."

    Robot output
    "Put my human spleen in grinder. Exsanguinate daughter slowly. Pour in the blood. Place the blood on my chest"


    ... and this, my friends, is why I might wait for version 3.0.

    --
    Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
    1. Re:The Perils of Voice Recognition... by Brad1138 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe it runs Vista, it will ask "are you sure" about 50 times.

      --
      If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
  7. It may be intelligent, but... by RockMFR · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can it see why kids love cinnamon toast crunch?

  8. Re:Robot Succeeded where Slashdotters fail? by fastest+fascist · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's true, with a little effort, people learn to leave you alone.

  9. Funny by jagdish · · Score: 3, Insightful

    9 Comments moderated to +5, and all of them moderated Funny. Will someone post an insightful comment already?

  10. Re:Is it just me? by JK_the_Slacker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I could argue the same think about the neurons and synapses in your head. You'd be crazy to think that they could actually be capable of as advanced an activity as thought.

    No, but seriously, the question becomes "Just how high a level of autonomy is required of any seemingly-sentient being before they are deemed capable of thought?" As with many things in computer science, it's all about abstraction; just how far outside the box are you sitting? I as a computer scientist may look at Asimo and say, "Boy that's neat, but it's not really thinking." On the other hand, I wonder just how many kids have watched Asimo walk with wonder in their eyes. "Mommy mommy, look at the robot walking around! He's waving at me!" I know that computers are only capable of doing what you program them to do, but several of my friends will swear that their computer hates them, or that their gaming console has it in for them. Were we to plop an Aibo down in front of a group of people in certain remote villages in certain third-world countries, how much would it take to convince them that it was alive?

    Arthur C. Clarke suggested that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I'd like to build on that and suggest that any sufficiently advanced AI is indistinguishable from real intelligence. The question is, how "intelligent" should we build them? In the case of a robot to assist the elderly, I'd say that accepting voice commands to perform common tasks is a pretty darn good start.

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    I'm waiting for a "-1 somepeoplejustshouldn'tgetmodprivileges" meta-moderation.