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.
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.
posted by rock808 at 8/12/2006 10:50:00 PM
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