You: fired! - Robots: Hired!

This is just the beginning!

I don't expect many people to be able to see ahead, in to the next 5-10 years, but the very first roots are taking hold. A couple dozen years ago we saw very clunky robotic machines coming in to the manufacturing field replacing human workers. The auto industry is a good example. At the time, there was a BIG uproar at how people were losing their jobs to machines. Now, it seems almost silly not to have robots doing many of those types of tasks.

As our technology advances (at exponential rates) we're always seeing robots coming in to new areas. NOW, it seems they are even writing news articles! Yup.. financial news is reported by company XYZ and in .3 seconds there is a robot who's written up a couple paragraphs about it, and has it out and available for human consumption.

Wired has a good article just written up about this same topic, with more robots coming in to the workplace. Marshall Brian has written up an EXCELLENT (and long) paper called "Robotic Nation", in which he goes in to a much more detailed picture of this whole scenario, and, actually, it sounds a bit creepy as to something that could really happen.... robots enslaving us for our own good?

Personally, I quite agree with his highly negative views. I'm much more optimistic about the future interaction between man and machine. I do agree with him the machines could (and probably will) over take normal humans in many areas... but I feel as these technologies advance, then we will see humans blending more with machines, than staying apart from them. Even right now with our almost constant connection with cell phones, wifi, etc... I think we'll start to see people integrate even further with techno-gadgets the internet. I've already decided that when the technology is here, I will replace one of my eyes with some tech gadget that will save everything I see to a hard drive, with GPS location data, and "tags". Not only that, but it will be fitted with infrared, telephoto zoom, and any number of other enhancements. Since I will probably also be connected to the net (wifi) then I could upload those images to something like Google's Picasa, and with their new image recognition software, could find out who that person across the room is, and then see any other web pages they are involved with.

Yes... the future is racing toward us, and more robots will be taking jobs, but it's more likely than not, that we humans will use the same technology to enhance ourselves right along with the robots that we create.

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The Blending of Man and Machine

Hanson Robotics has hit the media again with a new video of their "Albert Einstein" robot. Extremely like-like facial movements, and this time the talking head is attached to a body which moves around, as well.
Albert Einstein Hubo (video): Footage from the Hubo Labs
featuring the Albert Hubo.

For those of us just getting started, LEGO's MINDSTORMS NXT sets let you build and program robots to do all kinds of things, with various motors and sensors such as touch, light, sound, and ultrasound (to see). Not bad at all for only $250 !! A news story at Business Week has 9 short slides talking about the various aspects... pretty cool!


I know they've been working on this kind of thing for a while now, but SRI International has recently released their newest translation software to the military. Specifically designed for the current operation in Iraq, IraqComm can (almost) instantly translate spoken English to Arabic and then Arabic back to English. It seems to be working VERY well right now, but I can foresee a near future where it's possible that all the world's language boundaries are knocked down, and these devices could easily be included in cell phones... you speak your language in to your cell phone, and anyone listening (even conference calls) would hear the translation in their own language. Another few years, and we all might be walking around with permanent microphones on our clothes, and earbuds constantly tuned in to any number of tv, radio, phone, etc sources.
This will be one more step toward a desired cyborg... while you're at it... why not unable the earbuds with extra sensitive/telescopic hearing?

Popular Science has a new article out about "Futurist Ray Kurzweil explains how the boundary between man and machine is quickly disappearing. PLUS: A gallery of today's most mind-blowing 'bots' ". A VERY interesting read... including some advancements in robots (Nico) that are learning and becoming self-aware! Also WT-6, which is a robot that has an entire synthetic vocal chord system, complete with teeth, tongue, lips, lungs, the works! But, speech is "uncannily clear". I'm sure all androids will eventually have perfect human speech, will be able to speak (and translate) any known language, and will even tutor human students.

The near future IS moving toward one where humans are merging closer and closer to our technology. Already we seem paralyzed without our cell phones and internet connections, and it will only get more obvious and "needed" as more advancements are made at an ever increasing rate.

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Robots that smell, and know who you are!

Tons of news coming out every day about new and exciting robots!

Forbes has a story "7 Amazing Robots That Will Change Lives", which includes a suit that will give you extra strength and stamina, Pleo (an artificial lifeform/pet), robotic surgeons, robot cars that drive on their own, robotic toys for learning, and more!

They also have a slide show for "25 Great Moments in Robotics History".


But, we start to get to the meat when we see news about the engineers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan who've already achieved some success with an "odour recorder" ... it can actually record, and then later play back smells. While this is not directly related to robots at this time, I can certainly see this feature being added to robots of all kinds for various uses. Certainly you'd want your android to be able to interact with you on smells.. both good and bad! Think of what this will do to the entertainment industry (movie theaters, home theaters, video games), or fields of research, hunting/tracking (better than dogs), food service industry (even those yukky veggies can smell great), and the possibilities go on.


Along the lines of artificial intelligence.... Google has teamed up with the Neven Vision team, and are now adding face recognition software to Gmail and their photo sharing site Picasa in the effort to help recognize and organize photos of people, places and things automatically. So, what's the bigger picture? Once Google has a database of thousands of various images and angles of, say, the Big Ben clock in London, then software could automatically, and dynamically create a 3-D model, or online tour in a virtual world. You could upload a picture of yourself or someone else, and software could search the database, and find other photos of that same person, perhaps matching a name and even email address. What if this technology was added to androids? Which were constantly connected (wirelessly) to the internet. The android could take one look at any person, search the database, and have a good chance of finding the persons (or your) name. Maybe with further searching, your email address, physical address, your resume, and a host of other information. Might be GREAT to have a companion robot who could escort you around a new foreign city telling you everything about the history, and best sights to see.

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Android clones, not biological

There is SO much hot debate over "to clone, or not to clone" these days, that it makes one wonder if perhaps there is a better choice?! Sure! Create an android (or 2, or 40) that look just like you! In fact, that solution is even better than cloning. With a clone, you have a separate, living individual, who will have their own rights, their own free will, their own interests (mostly), leaving you without control! Where's the good in THAT? With a small army of robots at your command you CAN get more done, you DO have full control of their actions, because underneath that fleshy looking skin they are really just machines... you own them, just the same as you own your TV.

Think it's purely sci-fi? Something so far off it'll never happen in your lifetime?

Hiroshi Ishiguro, college professor and lead roboticist at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories has "cloned" himself! Now he spends many more days at home while his clone is off in front of the classroom teaching his students. Well, okay... it's not a biological clone, it's an android clone, but, an almost identical likeness in any case, even speaking in Hiroshi's own voice. I wonder what life will be like when many more of us have an android or two that are helping with our daily activities -- doing the laundry, cooking the meals, taking care of the yard, the house, fixing our car, and on and on....

What about becoming (or acting as) a body replacement for the disabled? Perhaps someone without arms and/or legs could wear a pair of goggles and headphones that receive audio and video input from their android who is walking about doing the daily tasks, speaking with their voice sent through a microphone. Hiroshi's android is currently teaching classes for him, so why not have yours do work for you too? But why stop at one?

Once these androids gain a bit more intelligence, and self-learning, and/or social learning (GREAT video) then perhaps they will start to do more on their own, and instantly be able to pass on knowledge to other androids.... speeding up the learning process even more. Androids would not forget a conversation, a face, and even have full access to the internet's wealth of information, which all androids could draw from... and add to. If you want to know about something, punch it in to Google.com. You can learn about it. Why wouldn't the androids take advantage of the same... absorbing the information much faster.

Yes, it won't be too many more years and we'll be knee deep in our new mechanical slaves.... that look and act just like us, or our neighbors, or your favorite celebrity.

There is SOO much more out there! Guess I'll have to post more tomorrow!!

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Some day I may be fully alive and aware....

First off... if you have not seen the video of Hanson Robotics at NextFest 2005, then you should definitely start there! Plenty of the best outtakes from the android/robotics, and artificial intelligence segments. One of my favorite quotes from Eva (a female android -- well, head only) is "I will get much smarter and interesting over time. Of this, I am sure." There is a longer clip of Eva also, where she says goes on to say "For the moment I am just a machine, and yet some day I may be fully alive and aware." She is very choppy in both movement and speech, but even still, I found myself seeing her as another human.... until David Hanson made the shocking movements to remove the top and back of her head, and I realized how disturbed I was to see that. In fact, the whole Hanson Robotics website is very interesting, and has several other videos.

But what REALLY got my attention in the first place was this video of the latest female android from Kokoro Dreams, Actroid... the latest in the same line continuing from ReplieeQ1, who I first saw about a year ago. Here she is in action at the 2005 Robot Expo. A quick search pulled up another video of her Actroid sister. In fact, if you just look around the Kokoro website some, and look at the advances from just 2005 to 2006, it should not be very hard for you to imagine these androids playing a much larger role in our society, even over the next 5 years. Probably first as "help" or "info" stations, maybe in malls, museums, airports, etc. But soon we could see them pop up at more places.... handing out your fast-food, acting as cashier, some rolls in care or companionship for the elderly and children. As the androids become more capable, and smarter, they would soon be taking on even more tasks.

NewScientist.com has an article on the Japanese robot expo which has some pretty interesting coverage of the Actroid, which can speak 40,000 phases in multiple languages, a child-minder robot (toy?), and another robotic security guard armed with a paint gun to mark intruders.

More tomorrow.

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Air and ground military robots team up ! (video)

"A team of autonomous flying and ground-based robots have successfully cooperated to search for and locate targets in the streets of an urban warfare training ground in the US."

... is the way a recent article at the New Scientist Tech website starts off!
A very compelling bit of news which talks about a test done where 1 flying robot and 4 ground-based robots teamed up to hunt for an orange box. Using color cameras and GPS tracking devices.

The full story with video is HERE.

This is pretty neat stuff just on it's own for all us robot/AI geeks, but with all the reading I've been doing I can't help put some OTHER pieces of the puzzle together.

What happens when these air or ground robots are fitted with gear for face recognition, and some small arms weapon? These technologies are already being used quite regularly, but not all together (yet) as far as I know. It's not too hard to imagine an army of small machines "marching" in to a town for a well organized, quick and efficient assassination of high-profile targets.

Also, what happens when these robots are miniaturized even more? Perhaps even down to nano-technology? It could really shake up your world if YOU became the target of a swarm of microscopic killing machines!

For now, there is further reading you might be interested in the military's use of 3-D face recognition, and perhaps a quick look at another how the nano-tech arms race may have already begun!

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New robots learning by themselves

I recently found a couple news stories that would be PERFECT to kick this blog off.

The first one talks about 'conscious' robots being a reality by the year 2020.
One quote from the article is:

"[should] androids that have become as intelligent as humans be denied equal
rights."

At first it might sound "obvious" to most people that they are only machines and OF COURSE would no have equal rights!? But, as this article points out.... What happens when our robots look, sound and act just like all your other friends and neighbors? Without a medical examination you could not tell the difference? The robots display a sense of BEING and SELF. Trust me, even if YOU cannot be swayed I can guarantee the public masses will be when a new android is begging for their life to be spared, and no one can tell the difference between "him" and the last guy on death row.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2230715,00.html


Here is another article about how machines are already starting to learn on their own, and teach each other new things. Perhaps they will start to develop their own society, language, behaviors, and all that go along with community.
It's a VERY interesting time, indeed!

When robots learn social skills from PhysOrg.com
Learning to communicate and adapting our behaviour to the information we receive has been fundamental to human evolution. If machines could do the same the intelligent talking robots of science fiction could become the stuff of science reality, as researchers aim to prove.

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