Robot Living

Tony Ellis, a British inventor has created a new humanoid robot he hopes to have manufactured called Aimec 3.  The robot has a camera for an eye and can understand verbal commands.  Aimec 3 can also access the internet for information.

Tony believes they can commercialize Aimec 3 withing 2 years for around £200.

Tony states,

One thing is for sure – robots will be huge. We are at the same stage as computers in the 1980s, when everyone was saying they would never take off.

Click through for a video with what sounds like quotes from Bender of Futurama.

Link via (Telegraph)
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Tags: Aimec 3, Tony Ellis

Hiroshi Ishiguro, the creator of the doppleganger robot, has created another crazy robot that falls way down into the uncanny valley.

The robot, called Telenoid R1, looks like it was sculpted out of white modeling clay.  It has the face of a human, but the body is somewhat lacking as it does not have hands or legs and feet.

The idea is that once you become used to the robot, you project whomever is remotely operating it onto the robot, like a friend.  I guess the idea is for the robot to be a blank canvas or blank slate.  Using special software, a remote operator sits at a computer.  Using a webcam and the software they control Telenoid R1 to communicate with the other person.

Telenoid R1 is seen as being used in remote places, education and for the elderly.

Two versions of the robot will be produced.  The one for researchers will cost about $35,000 and the commercial version will cost about $8,000.

Click through for a video.

Link via (IEEE Spectrum)
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Tags: Hiroshi Ishiguro, japan, uncanny valley

Researchers at the Bielelfeld University in Germany have created the robotic head Flobi.  This robotic head is meant to quickly be changed from male to female and vice versa.  The researchers hope Flobi’s cartoonish nature will avoid the uncanny valley present in other humanoid robots like the Repilee R-1.

Flobi sports a range of emotions and uses four in it’s cheeks LEDs to blush.

Link via (IEEE Spectrum)

Tags: Bielelfeld University, uncanny valley

Say hello to Bina48,  an artificial intelligence living in Vermont.  Her home is in the offices of the   Terasem Movement Foundation founded by Martine Rothblatt.  Bina48 is intelligent enough to carry on a conversation.

Bina48 is modeled on a real person named Bina Rothblatt, who is one of it’s owners and was made by David Hanson of Hanson Robotics. She has over 30 motors and her skin is made of a material called Frubber developed by Hanson Robotics.

The Terasem Movement is a non profit organization interested in artificial intelligence. The Terasem website states the following:

Terasem Movement, Inc. is a 501c3 not-for-profit charity endowed for the purpose of educating the public on the practicality and necessity of greatly extending human life, consistent with diversity and unity, via geoethical nanotechnology and personal cyberconsciousness, concentrating in particular on facilitating revivals from biostasis. The Movement focuses on preserving, evoking, reviving and downloading human consciousness.

Cyberconsciousness and downloading human consciousness? Woah, that’s some pretty heady science fiction type stuff.  Makes me think of the book Neuromancer by William Gibson.

It seems these folks hope one day  technology will exist to help extend our lives.  You can join in on this by joining Lifenaut for a mere one time donation of $8,950.  You then give them some of your cells and upload photos and videos of yourself and create an avatar.

Hopefully one day you will become like Bina48 or better yet, like the artificial intelligence Neuromancer from William Gibson’s book of the same name.

Click through for a New York Times interview with Bina48.

Link via (NYT) via (WPTZ)

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Tags: artificial intelligence, Terasem Movement, vermont

A South Korean company called Future Robot has unveiled a new robotic humanoid called FURO.

The robot FURO is designed to be an attractive female waitress.  Your order is placed by using her touchscreen and payment is made by swiping your credit card.

I’m not sure if I like her animated cartoon face better than a real face, but it is an interesting idea.

I wonder if this approach works better than how the Hajime Restaurant uses robots?

Click through to see FURO in action.

Link via (Plastic Pals) via (Endgadget)
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Tags: FURO, South Korea