Company Unveils Personalized Anime Robot Girl

MrSeb writes "It seems, as a culture, we have a deep-seated interest in robots and automatons, and if we can love an animal or other non-humanoid creature, what's to stop us from falling in love with a robot? Introducing Meka Robotics' S2 Humanoid Head: It has seven degrees of freedom, high-resolution FireWire cameras in each eye, zero-backlash Harmonic Drive gearing in the neck, and a ton of unnervingly-human movements and postures. She weighs 7.6kg (16.7lbs), has a pair of luminous, waggling doggy-like ears, and can be attached to a Meka torso and arm, if you prefer your robots to be slightly more corporeal. The girly, anime face is just a custom skin, incidentally: Meka will customize the shell to look like anything you desire. We're told that they value their client's confidentiality — and more importantly they don't judge. Powered by the open-source and extensible M3 control software, the S2 head (and body and arm) could be quite easily upgraded to use Hooman Samani's artificial endocrine and psychological models — and if you had the choice of falling in love with an amorphous, decidedly odd-looking furball, or a cute, perky anime girl, which would you choose?"

Comments

Love

[TechLA]

Seriously, what's the fun with seeking love in an robot.. It's not like finding a lovely girl/guy is that hard. Much of the love comes from the fact he or she is a thinking person with own thoughts, and doesn't always just do or say what you want to. And if you're just looking for sex, just get an one night stand or a paid girl.

Re:Love

[TechLA]

So then just suck it up and do it regardless. That's the only way to get out of that awkwardness and anti-sociality. Actually you improve quite fast if it just happens. I used to be kind of socially awkward while teen, but then some girl got a crush on me and hanged on even though it was awkward at times. It's the only way you learn, and robot isn't going to help you with that, but only a real person.

Re:Love

[Geeky]

You pay her. You see her quite regularly. You sort of become friends but deep down you know she's telling you what you want to hear to keep you happy - all part of the customer service. Then she says she's given up working but will still see you - you're a gray area. Since there was no need for her to say that, you believe her. You see her more often. You fall in love. You ask her out. She says she doesn't want to complicate things while money's involved but she's looking for a normal office job. You suspect she's still working. Although you only see her once every couple of weeks you hear from her every couple of days and get insecure if you don't. Half of you wants to know the truth - is it just what it is, or is there something real there? You dream of a future together but she's probably laughing at you behind your back and all the way to the bank while continuing to provide service as usual to anyone who's got the cash.

So, in summary, go easy on the paid girls.

(true story, by the way. happened to a, er, friend)

Re:Love

[PopeRatzo]

What if you are so socially fucked up that even paid girls interpret the awkwardness as being a narc?

Learn to play a musical instrument.

If I hadn't been a musician playing in a band that performed at dances and parties when I was in high school, I never would have had a single date. That's how awkward I was. When I got old enough to start playing in bars, I was able to actually have sex with other human beings. The music (and, let's be honest, the alcohol) provided sufficient social lubricant that I was able to overcome the friction of my own personality. It gave me enough confidence that later in life when the girl of my dreams got on the #8 Halsted Street bus at Webster, I was able to summon the courage to talk to her and right now at 6:04am she's laying in the bed I just woke from, as she has been for the past 21 years. Of course, rigor mortis has made her a little less flexible, but still. (that last is a joke)

I don't know if things have changed in a generation, and maybe it's different with all the rapping and the hippity-hop music where they holler over two records playing at the same time, but if I could give one piece of advice to the lovelorn geek it would be this: Learn to play an instrument. I don't care if it's a harmonica or accordion or even a ukulele. Learn 5 songs, at least one that has the word "love" in it somewhere (that seems to have special meaning for females). Even if you don't get good enough to play in bars, there's something about the act of making music that has the seemingly magical effect of making interacting easier with that obscure object of desire of whichever gender you prefer.

Oh, and take a shower once in a while for chrissake. It's starting to smell like ass in this comments section.

Re:Love

[xmousex]

For me the social awkward anti-social thing was over with when high school started, and i have had my fun and a few marriages.

Now I'm in that age range where the girls I find interesting have plenty of other younger guys to go home with for the night. And the women who are my age or older and at the bars looking are.... eh.... not interesting. Those women are still looking at the world like its the 80s, they think facebook IS the internet, and physically most of them have lost what they used to have. And a one nighter means dodging the husband and kids.

Escorting is no easy out either. Law enforcement has raided and shut down most of the local boards I liked. And regardless of how much you pay there is no force on earth that will spare you the inevitable drama most females bring with them. It is very hard to find a paid girl who is actually interested in pleasing and not in a hurry to move along. And the price alone does add up to the point where some other investment starts to make sense.

But all that aside, having a relationship requires you give a damn. I strictly do not. I have been down that long road twice and when it comes to all the goals and directions I have to pursue in life, sitting around and listening to someone elses noise, and watching their tv shows, and adding their laundry into the pile, just doesn't fit my life.

This robot thing in the video is about useless, but the direction it suggests is a nice idea. Someday I will be older and floppier and these machines will grow more enticing. And there is a power button. !!!

And the best part. I actually KNOW their language.

Re:Love

[Muad'Dave]

And the best part. I actually KNOW their language.

You speak the binary language of moisture vaporators?

Re:Love

[Geeky]

FWIW, I think seeing paid girls is more moral than a one night stand if you're leading your one night stand to believe it could be more than that. It's certainly more honest. A one night stand where both parties know it's a one night stand up front is fine, but rare in my experience - one or the other usually wants more from it.

I don't have a moral objection to paying as long as there's no coercion. Believe it or not, there are quality independent girls who choose to do it out of their own free will and without drug habits to support.

Re:Love

[aurelianito]

What if you are so socially fucked up that even paid girls interpret the awkwardness as being a narc?

Learn to play a musical instrument.

Another option is learning how to dance something. Tango worked great for me and it does not require you to move your hip. In fact, it is better if you don't do it at all, giving us wooden dancers an advantage.

Whatever you choose to do (playing or dancing), remember that it will not work for the first 2 or 3 years. It is a lot of hard work to be able to dance or play an instrument in a pleasant way. That's where being nerdy helps. We are experienced in taking big and long projects and keeping doing them without pause for years until we finally achieve what we want. Just make yourself sure that you will like the activity even if you are not able to pick up girls because of it.

Re:Love

[mabhatter654]

I want to make out with Hatsune Miku!! And she can sing too!

Seriously, I'd bet she's at the top of the prototype list just for fandom.

No Mouth

[Anonymous Coward]

Where do I put my penis then?

Awesome

[vadim_t]

Progress seems to be steadily moving towards making Chobits a reality.

They should make sure to use redundant SSDs for storage, and have backup functionality, though. Hard drives lead to tragedy.

Anime Girl Robots

[doubleplusungodly]

Making people's harem anime dreams come true...several tens of thousands of dollars at a time.

P.S.: A feminine robot not made in Japan? :O

Re:This...

[sjames]

It's just another sign that society is wearing water skis and a leather jacket.

Women have it hard in the future

[goose-incarnated]

Seriously, they do

The feminist activists convinced women that they can act just as men do, resulting in this free-sex utopia. I think it was Freakonomics that pointed out that the price of sex has dropped since the 30's. Prostitutes used to cost more than the median monthly wage, now they cost the price of a meal - so if you're single and horny, which would you rather do - go on a first date and *maybe* get laid by the second date or simply pay the price of that meal and get laid?

Of course, men pursue sex - that's how we are built - and in the past we needed to commit to a woman to get assured of sex on a regular basis. Now with feminists making the argument that society won't judge women who are promiscuous, some women believe them, lowering the value of women in general. If I'm looking for a long-term relationship, I expect Mary to put out by the third date or so, and if she doesn't, I'll find my long-term relationship with Susan, who *will* put out.

Just for sex, though, even porn causes a drop in the value of women; whats going to happen when VR means that you can have a virtual g/friend for sex? That's an even further drop.

Yes, of course there will be men who still want a real women, but you cannot escape the fact that demand is dropping.

Re:Women have it hard in the future

[Asic Eng]

Well the price of sex sinking is certainly a good thing, it means both men and women have more of it. Also while I find the "feminism = free sex" claim more than dubious (that's really not how it happened historically) - feminist would likely argue that women should not be valued as providers of sex, but for their skills and accomplishments. It's true though that this can be bad news for those women who have neither.

Women have more options today - they don't need to get married in order to have an income, they can pursue their own careers and their own goals in life. So while demand from men for marriage has dropped, the same applies for women, too.

Now neither men nor women are forced to have a relationship or enter marriage in order to have an income or to get sex. That changes many things and that's not necessarily easy. Overall it's good to have freedom to chose, though.

Re:Women have it hard in the future

[goose-incarnated]

Thats a fairly stunning collection of pig ignorant misogynistic lunacies I have to say. Apparently the "value of women" is solely related to sex in your world. What, mamma didn't love you or something? To be honest anyone that would prefer to have sex with a machine rather than an attractive partner of the same species needs their heads examined, to say nothing of the universal availability of masturbation if you're that badly off.

I don't make the rules; the rules are that men pursue women for sex, women agree to stay with a man for security. This is how society is, and I cannot change that. The nash equilibrium for mating is already established and agreed upon by people far smarter than yourself or any of the oprah-ish magazines you subscribe to.

Your strategy of groveling before women probably works for you. Stick with it. However, the acknowledged superior strategies for men are simply to amass power and influence to attract a mate. While not *all* men and *all* women are the same, I'm not counting the outliers - they may not even reproduce at all!

Don't shoot the messenger.

Re:Women have it hard in the future

[dkleinsc]

If I'm looking for a long-term relationship, I expect Mary to put out by the third date or so, and if she doesn't, I'll find my long-term relationship with Susan, who *will* put out.

Or, you know, I might realize that in any successful long-term relationship, there's a lot of factors that matter more than how quickly I can get my partner into bed. For instance, do I enjoy spending time with Mary? Do we have some common interests? Do we have good and meaningful conversations? Can we figure out a way of working when work needs to get done? If this relationship really does well, and we end up hitched for the rest of our lives, we're going to spend far more time dealing with that stuff than whether Mary put out on the third date.

Re:Women have it hard in the future

[goose-incarnated]

Well the price of sex sinking is certainly a good thing, it means both men and women have more of it. Also while I find the "feminism = free sex" claim more than dubious (that's really not how it happened historically) - feminist would likely argue that women should not be valued as providers of sex, but for their skills and accomplishments. It's true though that this can be bad news for those women who have neither.

Women have more options today - they don't need to get married in order to have an income, they can pursue their own careers and their own goals in life. So while demand from men for marriage has dropped, the same applies for women, too.

Now neither men nor women are forced to have a relationship or enter marriage in order to have an income or to get sex. That changes many things and that's not necessarily easy. Overall it's good to have freedom to chose, though.

It's hard to undo the instincts honed over millions of years of evolution. The average females instinct, no matter how independent and successful she is, is still to "settle" with a provider (due to the large investment she makes in the offspring). That hasn't changed. The males instinct (to spread seed far and wide due to lesser investment in offspring) is to mate with as many females as possible. This also hasn't changed.

What has changed is that society is now trying to convince women that they can emulate male sexual strategy with no drawbacks; unfortunately this satisfies the males primary mating instinct, while resulting in the female not having her primary mating instinct satisfied.

Overall, the free-sex utopia is giving males what they always wanted (lots of sex) while at the same time denying females what they always wanted - stability and security for the offspring.

(And to all those other replies to my post - Men never had a dollar value to women!, their only value was in providing security and stability, so women never had to buy it. Women always had a material value to men, as evidenced by prostitution. So saying "the value of men will drop too" is kinda pointless - they never had that value.)

Re:Women have it hard in the future

[Intrepid imaginaut]

I don't make the rules; the rules are that men pursue women for sex, women agree to stay with a man for security.

So that whole women entering the workplace thing has just breezed right by you eh? These are reprehensible sentiments - maybe you should learn to embrace and enjoy the pleasure women get from their own sexuality rather than being afraid of it and treating it as horse trading.

Re:Women have it hard in the future

[goose-incarnated]

I don't make the rules; the rules are that men pursue women for sex, women agree to stay with a man for security.

So that whole women entering the workplace thing has just breezed right by you eh? These are reprehensible sentiments - maybe you should learn to embrace and enjoy the pleasure women get from their own sexuality rather than being afraid of it and treating it as horse trading.

Listen, I really do not make the rules - men and women evolved to have certain instincts and mating strategies that were beneficial to humans as a whole. These instincts aren't going to go away simply because you passed a law, you know. I welcome the freedom of women to do as they please, to be financially independent, to gain high-profile jobs and to use a primarily male mating strategy, because it works in my favour! It means I get to have sex with more different women, without having to provide for them, and only sharing the financial burden of the offspring. The more women who "revel in their sexuality", the more sex I get offered.

I'm not complaining, merely pointing out that women themselves don't seem to understand this until they reach their late 30's to early 40's, and then they suddenly find that it's almost impossible to find a worthy mate at that point because the males at that point (outliers notwithstanding) will still rather have the beautiful young women who, unsurprisingly, have not yet acquired power and influence themselves and thus are impressed by males with power and influence who express interest in them.

It seems that these days it is reprehensible to point out that while men and women are equal, they have different instincts.

Re:Women have it hard in the future

[sgt scrub]

While you present a strong and coherent argument you leave out two very important facts. Who is this Susan? How do I get her number?

Re:Women have it hard in the future

[turtledawn]

You don't see how this ends well for females? How about, we don't need you. We're already at the point where we can perform random chromosomal assortment on eggs and generate synthetic sperm in mice; the process is there, it just needs refinement.

And Darwinian sexual selection is still in play, you know - someone who's "putting out" on the third date is almost invariably going to be on birth control and will likely ditch you when your dickish behaviour is no longer compensated for by your dick, so your non-committal genes aren't getting passed on.

Re:Women have it hard in the future

[tehcyder]

Prostitutes used to cost more than the median monthly wage,

I don't see how that's possible, it can only be that the cheaper prostitues just weren't identified as such. If the median monthly wage is X your disposable income is going to be less than a quarter of X.

I just don't believe that people saved up all their disposable income just to pay for a quick shag once every four months, and in the meantime spent no money on drinking, gambling, or other entertainment.

Re:Women have it hard in the future

[Intrepid imaginaut]

men and women evolved to have certain instincts and mating strategies

Goddamn brainless judeo-christianity has a lot to answer for.

Re:Love - Obligitory

[EnempE]

It's not like finding a lovely girl/guy is that hard.

You're new here aren't you :-)

Re:This...

[vadim_t]

Why, I think it's awesome.

We'll probably have good humanoid robots before we have human-like intelligence. But that's okay, because you still can use the bot for telepresence. Think about being able to have a walk in a park, or help in some physical way a friend who is on the other side of the planet.

With a good enough bot and control system it could be completely revolutionary. Lots and lots of applications: making things easier for old and handicapped people, virtually visiting remote and hard to access locations, remote customer service where an operator connects to a local bot...

I'm quite happy to see people contribute to the development of such things

Men pursue sex

[SmallFurryCreature]

Explain the navy please. If men are so obsessed with sex why do MEN volunteer to spend months if not years at sea with no females? No, not all US sailors are gay. Okay, most of them but not all. Some are bi.

But seriously, this myth that men are obsessed with sex needs to die.

Re:This...

[vadim_t]

No, I see a glorified sex doll funding interesting research. I just don't particularly mind the sex doll part. Not my thing, but hey, I have plenty weird interests of my own.

Besides lots of awesome tech is first adopted in silly toys for ridiculously rich people with nothing better to do. Then the tech gets cheaper and benefits everybody.

Let's see...

[argStyopa]

- costs me thousands of dollars, check
- will talk constantly, check
- will never come across with a blowjob or sex, check.

Yep, it's practically a real girl. At least this one comes with two positive aspects.
1) the impossibility of sex is clear from the start
2) I can terminate it or throw it in the trunk of my car without uncomfortable questions.

Re:cuts both ways

[goose-incarnated]

switch "man" and "woman" in your comment and it still works. You are starting from the (very sexist) notion that a woman sells her body in return for safety and (financial) stability. Well I have news for you: Most parts of the world, women are better educated. They no longer NEED a man. My father still can't fry an egg, my late mother would never have been able to provide for her children. These days are long gone now. In my generation, women have sex because they feel like it, not as a part of a commecial transaction. This explains the increase in divorces and single parent families. As Houllebecq said: the biggest mistake the feminists did was to teach men how to iron their own shirts.

Instincts don't work like that - you don't conciously think "I need a provider", you just find the provider more attractive to settle down with. All the politically correct ignorance in the world isn't going to change biology. We find certain types attractive because of biology, not because someone said so. You should read up on this stuff (human mating strategies).

Re:Not everyone wants a maiddroid

[TheCarp]

rotfl my wife just got the dvd of that movie recently, after seeing the clips of it in that MC Chris music video "Japanese Maid".

We haven't watched it yet but it looks amazing lol.

I never really fantasized about being robosexual, but if a robot looked like the girl in that movie, I think I would give it a try.

This thing however um.... I mean... it doesn't even have any orifices? When I saw that they "don't judge" and "robot head", shit, I was expecting at least a mouth orifice with an attempt at a silicone covered, fully articulated tongue.

If these guys really want to make some sales, and work the "we don't judge" angle, they should team up with the real doll folks.

Re:This...

[TheCarp]

Exactly. And... hey, sex toy isn't a bad auxiliary use. Most everybody likes to get off, and even those with a steady partner (or partners) have the occasional lonely night, or night when she isn't feeling well etc.

Yah the thought of people replacing human interaction with robot interaction is kind of sick on some levels, I tend to think that its going to be far more mundane. Its no different than having a cat that you talk to...which all pet owners do, and those who don't are liars. Do some people go overboard and use them as a substitute for social interaction or to avoid dealing with social anxiety? Sure... but what percentage of pet owners are we really talking about here?

Sure, anyone who gets one is probably going to lose a few days interacting with it, but, I doubt that we are looking at something thats going to hold many people's interest to the exclusion of real social interaction for long, most people aren't even that interesting for very long, and these are hardly even boring people yet.... though is still very impressive for what they are.

So yes... I fully support the addition of a mouth with fully articulated tongue, and some sort of lube secreting substitute for a salivary gland.

7 Degrees of Freedom...

[bryan1945]

and 70 degrees of icky and "get me the hell out of here, now!"
This and that 'Natural Girl' sex robot (or whatever it's called) scares even Cthulhu. What if the 2 mated?! Throw in Skynet and you could have a freakish anime-head sex robot killing machine.
I'm going to crawl into a corner and have very bad dreams.

Re:What's the with Japanese and robots anyway?

[sandytaru]

From the Japanese folks I've met in real life, their entire culture is built around being socially awkward. I think that's why their pop culture deals with the robot-love genre better than anyone else. (Chobits from CLAMP is the de facto masterpiece of the genre and picks apart the ethics of robots better than anyone since Asimov.)

Re:What's the with Japanese and robots anyway?

[fiannaFailMan]

Seriously, it's not like it's some passing fad either. I know they're an obsessive people by nature, but Jesus Christ, for decades now they've been CRAZY about robots (and technology in general, but ESPECIALLY robots). I mean they're fucking INSANE about robots. Granted, I guess it's a better obsession for them to have than empire-building, but wouldn't more varied interests be a little more healthy?

What's a "more valid" interest? Celebrity gossip? Sports? Reality TV?

What's so unhealthy about being interested in robotics?

Jeez!