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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| The Latest In Japanese Fembot Tech (videos) |
| 2006-10-07 |
| Kokaro a division of Sanrio which specializes in robotics has unveiled the Actroid DER2 fembot a successor to the Actroid DER. The Actroid DER2 is a bit thinner and can deliver more expressions, in fact she is so lifelike that you might mistake her for an actual human being. Its limbs, torso and facial expressions are controlled by a system of actuators powered by pneumatic pressure. She can even choreograph her motions and gestures with her voice. Though not for sale you can rent out the Actroid DER2 fembot for around 400,000 yen (US$3,500) for 5 days. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #11 LOL .com, I was tempted! But would have to say close, but no cigar. ;-) |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2006-10-07 22:12 |
| #10 Woah...man hands! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-10-07 22:11 |
| #9 What? No one's mentioned Cherry 2000, yet? |
| Posted by: .com 2006-10-07 21:32 |
| #8 mechanized hookers? damn. Where do you swipe the ATM card? I'm sure they'll provide a slot somewhere. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-10-07 21:31 |
| #7 There is no inherent advantage to a humanoid appearance, except when you want it to interact with humans. The Japanese have been at the forefront of a part of Artificial Intelligence that involves inferring emotion and meaning from body language and expression as well as from spoken words. This demo is just that - a demo. The facial expressions are quite good, actually, but the real story here is the underlying work in AI. Consider that being able to replicate lifelike expression appropriate to verbal meaning is just the flip side of recognizing it in humans. Which means the ability to create AI agents embodied in robots and other systems which can better serve humans by inferring their intent. In a rapidly aging population with few children, the Japanese are seriously looking to robotics to provide help and care for the elderly. Old folks don't want care from a tin can on wheels, they will want to interact with something that at least gives the similitude of human expression. As an aside, my own research includes work in AI as it applies to understanding human language. When you and I speak or write, we use metaphors, short-hand phrases, sometimes we deliberately (in puns) or inadvertently use ambiguous wording. It's features like that that make natural language processing a hard problem. The sub-field of AI that looks at expressions and body language as augmenting verbal communication is one way of making natural language understanding by software agents a little more accurate. steps down and apologetically puts soap box away then slips into the crowd again |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-10-07 19:29 |
| #6 It's a free-standing animatronic, not really a robot. Disney's had fixed-location animatronics for decades, and a free-standing one (not human, but a dinosaur) for a few years. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2006-10-07 19:12 |
| #5 There is a really good question about what you would do with a humanoid android. Since ordinary tasks can be done better and cheaper by either people or non-humanoid robots. There is no inherent advantage to a humanoid appearance, except when you want it to interact with humans. Unless there turns out to be some previously unknown facet of the human psyche that rejects non-humanoid robots, it would probably be far more useful to make robots that look like exotic space aliens. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-10-07 18:55 |
| #4 Where do you swipe the ATM card? Do you REALLY want a straight answer? This is a family blog, after all. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-10-07 17:45 |
| #3 mechanized hookers? damn. Where do you swipe the ATM card? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-10-07 17:32 |
| #2 Westworld here we come. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2006-10-07 16:43 |
| #1 Big deal. But, on the other hand, I'll be very interested when they finally come up with cat (bad)girls. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-10-07 15:21 |
