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Toyota Unveils Violin-Playing Robot
eldavojohn writes "Toyota has unveiled a robot that can play the violin. From the article: 'Toyota said it planned to further advance the robot's dexterity to enable it to use tools and assist with domestic duties and nursing and medical care. The robot has 17 joints in both of its hands and arms now.' It seems there have been small — or maybe even strange, impractical — advances in robotics repeatedly with demonstrations of robots performing a specialized task. Are we merely struggling to hard code each human activity as we strive for an all purpose android? Is there a chance artificial intelligence & robotics will ever become generalized enough to make interaction interesting?"
Do westerners have any idea how stupid they sound every time someone says "Toyota" and they immediately think "cars". There's 37 companies in the Toyota group. Less than a third of them are auto related. Toyota Industries Corporation, the member from which the group takes its name, was originally called Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. If there has to be one thing you think about when someone says "Toyota" then let it be automation. That's what they do. That's what they've always done. Cars just happen to be a product that they export to the little part of the world where you live.
So yeah, when you scratch your head and say "wow, what's Toyota interested in robots for, don't they make cars?!?!" Imagine a little Japanese man laughing at you.
How we know is more important than what we know.