Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Japanese Build Robot Toddlers

Posted by timothy on from the soft-spot-is-not-the-reset-hole dept.

kgeiger writes "The Japanese birth dearth may be crashing their population and rendering kids a rarity, but never fear! Robotics researchers at Osaka University are building robot babies to learn how people are supposed to interact with young children. For anyone who has raised real kids, cyberkiddies would seem a cheat unless they come with "why? Why? WHY?" and "No!" infinite loops and no OFF switch."

14 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Improvement, not duplication by Angst+Badger · · Score: 4, Funny

    For anyone who has raised real kids, cyberkiddies would seem a cheat unless they come with "why? Why? WHY?" and "No!" infinite loops and no OFF switch.

    Like cars are cheating if they don't eat hay and crap in the street.

    --
    Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
    1. Re:Improvement, not duplication by ddd0004 · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's funny. My car is essentially crap in the street.

  2. didn't kubrick and spielberg make this already? by Skarecrow77 · · Score: 2

    and wasn't it a really really horrible mess?

    1. Re:didn't kubrick and spielberg make this already? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Dunno. When I was watching the movie, they accidentally put in the last roll in reverse. Oddly, it made more sense that way...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Break themselves? by noidentity · · Score: 2

    Since it's well-known that toddlers can break any electronic device, even if they have no buffer-overflow vulnerabilities, what will happen when the toddlers themselves are electronic? Will they spontaneously break, or be a super-race that cannot be defeated?

  4. Is it an accurate simulation? by blair1q · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's only an accurate simulation if 3/4ths of the robot kids are delivered 9 months after a surprise announcement that the recipient was getting one.

  5. It won't work... by jason18 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How can you study this kind of thing using robots? No matter what you do, you can't simulate small children well enough to make people act the same around the robot as a real kid. It's a nice concept, but it'll never get anything done except entertain. Plus I bet we'll never hear about this again in the US.

    1. Re:It won't work... by hort_wort · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How can you study this kind of thing using robots? No matter what you do, you can't simulate small children well enough to make people act the same around the robot as a real kid. It's a nice concept, but it'll never get anything done except entertain. Plus I bet we'll never hear about this again in the US.

      I remember reading how when people encounter a robot for the first time, they avoid eye contact out of respect until they realize it's a robot they're talking to. All you have to fool is the casual observer to get human reactions. But then, even a casual observer may notice a disembodied head being atypical....

    2. Re:It won't work... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well sure it does. I'm working in Japan now, and this place is pretty terrible towards its workers.

      Young people don't want to have kids because they are paid rotten salaries, overworked, and their job security isn't that great.... (women are still expected to "retire" when they get married or have a kid!) lol

      If the government forced employers to adhere to proper employment laws, allowed and encouraged unions, and made work family friendly -- they wouldn't need robot kids!

    3. Re:It won't work... by lobiusmoop · · Score: 2

      Um, these guys would probably disagree with you. They've been around for over a decade and are doing quite well I believe.

      --
      "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
    4. Re:It won't work... by Dogtanian · · Score: 2

      I'm married to a Japanese woman and living in Japan. We don't want children because we don't want them. We have no desire to have them.

      That's fine for you and your wife. But it obviously doesn't describe the average person in any locality - if it did, our species would probably be extinct.

      In case it had escaped your attention, he wasn't talking about the "average person in any locality" though- he was talking about Japan. And it's also pretty well-known that Japan *does* have a serious problem with an ageing population and not enough children- which over the not-so-long term certainly *will* lead to their extinction if they don't do something about it.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  6. This complicates things... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I don't know whether I should be stocking up on EMP weapons or coathangers in order to battle the robot uprising. Thanks a lot, Japan.

  7. Re:If this means Rozen Maiden in real life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Does master want Suiseiseki to give him a footrub-desu?" she purred.
    "No thank you," I said. "I'm rather tired. You should retire to your box."
    "But master-sama, Suiseiseki doesn't like her box-desu! I want to sleep in master-sama's bed-desu!"
    "Not tonight. You'll do as you're told."
    "Why doesn't master-sama have real girls in his bed?"
    "What?!"
    "Is master-sama's penis too small for real girls?"
    "Why aren't you saying desu?"
    "Does he have to use dolls instead?"
    "SAY DESU! SUISEISEKI FINISHES HER SENTENCES WITH DESU!"
    "Master-sama showed Suiseiseki his penis once."
    "DESU! MASTER-SAMA SHOWED SUISEISEKI HIS PENIS ONCE DESU!"
    "It was too small even for dolls."
    "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! YOU'RE NOT SUISEISEKI!"

    With my right hand I snatched a pair of scissors from my desk and mashed them continually into her face. Her little body was smashed into kindling but I did not stop. Until her screams began to sound a bit like my voice, and I remembered that dolls did not scream, and they did not bleed. Suddenly there was feeling in my left hand for the first time in weeks. I lifted it out of the doll's wreckage, covered in splinters and dripping from scissored wounds. How long had my hand been inside there? How long had I been inside here, alone in my one-room apartment, talking to myself, going mad?

    The bolt scraped rust from the latch as I stepped outside. My eyes hurt, god the horizon ... it was a deal larger than 19 inches diagonally. But after five steps my breath quickened and my chest tightened and I turned back. Enough for today. Tomorrow I would try for six. A distant memory told me that when I reached two hundred and eighty, I would make it to the bus stop. And then I'd be free of this apartment, of this prison. And then there'd be nowhere in the world I couldn't go.

    Least of all the refunds counter at Moemart in Akihabara. For fuck's sake. Suiseiseki finishes her sentences with desu.

  8. Re:No one saw this coming by Jonah+Hex · · Score: 2

    Even though it would be a huge personal sacrifice, I am willing to impregnate as many Japanese women as needed to reverse their birth dearth.

    Dearth... who says that anymore? Funny word... dearth, dearth, dearth.

    HEX

    --
    Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes