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Japan Launches Talking Humanoid Robot Into Space
An anonymous reader writes "Kirobo, a talking humanoid robot, has been launched into space and is headed to the International Space Station. From the article: 'Japan has launched the world's first talking humanoid robot "astronaut" toward the International Space Station. Kirobo — derived from the Japanese words for "hope" and "robot" — was among five tons of supplies and machinery on a rocket launched Sunday from Tanegashima in southwestern Japan, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said. The childlike robot was designed to be a companion for astronaut Koichi Wakata and will communicate with another robot on Earth, according to developers. Wakata is expected to arrive at the space station in November.'"
no article?
The Japanese just launched a robot Kibo into orbit. Words fail.
Dave-san, I cannot let you jeopardize this mission.
It's basically a toy - less than a foot high ...
I'm going to call this more of a stunt than anything else, sorry.
I am also feeling very sorry that Slashdot has decided to carry a Japanese Toy Story
beat them, ha! http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp
What's wrong with the other non-Japanese astronauts being "companions" for their Japanese astronauts? Since when are machines acceptable substitutes for humans in social situations?
and WTF is wrong with people? We already have plenty of robots in space. No need for any of them to talk or be humanoid. Those things just make them direct competitors for humans WHO PRESENTLY DO EVERYTHING BETTER.
We voted for hope and change, and we got "Kirobo"
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I for one welcome our...oh, fuck you! Too easy!
Is Japanese easier to process for voice recognition than English?
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Here comes step 2:
We'll beam him cheesy movies,
The worst we can find.
It'll have to receive and record them all,
And we'll monitor his hard drive.
And because our robot can't control
Where the movies begin or end.
It'll try to have enough free disk space
With the help of its human friends.
They couldn't get Bender to go. The amount of beer and oil Bender demanded would have added too much weight for the launch. To save face, when no one else was watching, the Japanese quickly shoved Kirobo, kicking and screaming into the cargo bay and welded the door shut.
I wonder whats next
It's basically a toy - less than a foot high, I think - it responds to basic verbal pre-programmed commands.
"modelled on a beloved Japanese cartoon figure, Astro Boy, it would be quite wrong, indeed grossly offensive, to describe it as a toy."
-"You can clean up a pig, put a ribbon on it's tail, spray it with perfume, but it is still a pig."
We all know how this will end. We've all seen the Japanese movies. Tokyo is going to end up in ashes and rubble. Then Godzilla will wake up, and things will get messy.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Japan Launches Talking Humanoid Robot Into Space
wow, they must really hate when robots talk.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
"I won't, I won't open the pod bay doors; nanny nanny poo poo! Davie Gravy, I betcha can't get in without a helmet, betcha betcha, chickeeeen!"
Table-ized A.I.
It costs $5000-$10,000 per pound to ship things into space, and they sent a talking companion robot that doesn't even speak the same language as any of the astronauts?
What is with the Japanese and their obsession with robots .. especially humanoid ones? We are not at the stage in AI development where a humanoid robot is of some utility.
I have never understood Japanese robot innovations or the hype around them. What they are doing so superficial and useless. They intently focus on the mechanics of robotic movement and facial design while either ignoring or paying superficial lip service to the Artificial Intelligence aspect. The moment the robot interacts with a human the illusion will be broken. Most of these Japanese robots have essentially the same AI as an IRC bot. Restricted list of recognized commands and related actions. Obsessively focusing on the form and ignoring the soul of the machine.
These are useless toys outside of manufacturing and very specialized industries. And frankly the problem of robot mechanics is an easy one to solve. Just copy Nature.
* Soul required for activation not included.
Is Japanese easier to process for voice recognition than English?
Grammatically, yes, practically, no.
Japanese is more regular than English, and it is SOV order instead of SVO order. Subject -> Object -> Verb means you have your subject object, and the parameter object, before you're told to call the Subject object's member function.
Idiomatically, however, there's a huge amount of context use to imply subject and object, so if you were to try and parse spken Japanese, you might have a problem if you weren't there for the start of the conversation. I rather expect that it's limited to completely context free full sentences and/or simple commands, rather than understanding idiomatic usage.
Someone else mentioned homonyms; you can get a homonym of "you are a tall man" that could also mean "you have just crossed a bridge" and "you are a martian" (one of my favorite Japanese puns, actually, because of the story a friend tells which goes with it), but again, it requires idiomatic usage to get to that point, so practically, you can eliminate ambiguity intentionally, the same way that you can avoid puns in English, by further constraining how you are allowed to talk to the thing.
Or you could just flag ambiguous idiomatic usage, and have it ask for clarification, which is what most robot engineers would do.
come to mind so easily here. Why is everything old, still old. Take it and make it new, please someone! Help us climb from our mediocrity.
Wow ... Mr. Clippy ... is that you? Congratulations on your serious career-move!
Making digital mistakes in computer-land apparently is no guarantee for not repeating them in the physical world ...
- Jesper
My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
Japan.... 1000 animes with giant robots... and you send a kids toy to space? Where are my Jaegers?
I hope they're careful and turn it off before they go to sleep!
take planetfall. put planetfall in drive. play planetfall.
I persoanlly this it is not important to have humanoid machines or computer software. But who knows for sure. We wont be certain until someone tries the alternatives.