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Sony to set up intelligent robot lab: report
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040314073341.ks4bidsh.html ^ | 15 Mar 04 | staff

Posted on 03/15/2004 9:46:37 AM PST by RightWhale

Sony to set up intelligent robot lab: report

TOKYO (AFP) Mar 14, 2004

Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony will set up a laboratory to develop intelligent robots, adding to its line of pet and humanoid machines, a press report said Sunday.

The wholly owned laboratory will be established in May or June by recruiting 10 to 20 leading researchers in robotics and brain science from universities and research institutes in Japan, the Asahi Shimbun daily said. No official was immediately available at the head office of Sony Corp. to confirm the report.

"I hope to bring into existence in five years' time a robot which can communicate so naturally that it is indistinguishable from man," the daily quoted senior Sony executive Toshitada Doi as saying. Doi has led Sony's development of robots starting with its popular robot entertainment dog AIBO.

Last December Sony unveiled the world's first "running" robot, QRIO, which can jog at a speed of 14 meters (46 feet) a minute. Weighing seven kilograms (15 pounds), silver metallic QRIO is 58 centimeters (23 inches) tall, with beaming blue lights for eyes.

The projected laboratory will study the latest theories of brain science and wide-ranging research on how the brain behaves in health and illness, and apply them to robot development, the report said. It hopes to create a robot which can make voluntary and intelligent movements by learning things by itself or reacting to changes in its surroundings, the report said.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: robots; sony
Anybody can work on robotics. The investment is next to nothing in dollars, but big in hours.
1 posted on 03/15/2004 9:46:38 AM PST by RightWhale
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To: RightWhale
they're just taking on jobs that no one in
the US would want to do. ;)
2 posted on 03/15/2004 10:18:23 AM PST by vp_cal
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To: vp_cal
Robots should do all the drudgery so we will be free to spend our time in non-productive ways. Robots could even do our Internet posting chores and we could look in from time to time to see if the Liberal bots are getting the upper hand.
3 posted on 03/15/2004 10:25:32 AM PST by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: vp_cal
I see a movie

Robots battle the Illegals

4 posted on 03/15/2004 10:33:44 AM PST by bmwcyle (<a href="http://www.johnkerry.com/" target="_blank">miserable failure)
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To: RightWhale
perhaps consumers will also get intelligent to stop funding Sony's ingenious engineering flops such as elcaset, betamax, memory stick and $1000 toy dogs.

Sony, buy Apple Corp. and make something useful for a change (Sony Ipod Sony Macintosh)

5 posted on 03/15/2004 11:43:56 AM PST by DTA (you ain't seen nothing yet)
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To: DTA
Robotics could transform the planet and open outer space to development. Instead of backing off of technology we should push technology to robotics. Then we would have put our post-modern crisis to rest.
6 posted on 03/15/2004 12:03:56 PM PST by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: RightWhale
Also right here on "erf", firefighters could benefit right now from robotics applied to help them.

The list is endless.

Social pressures & stigmas keep robotics at bay, I guess.

I don't really understand it, being as we're in the future and all (where are the flying cars I read about in the 1967 Popular Mechanics Magazine that would be quite common in the year 2000)

7 posted on 03/15/2004 12:30:00 PM PST by norraad ("What light!">Blues Brothers)
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To: RightWhale
It's deja-vu from Japan. Reminds me of the fifth generation AI project about 1983. They sunk a billion or so into AI research and you don't hear much about it anymore.

What is it about the Japanese with monsters and robots?
8 posted on 03/15/2004 12:35:40 PM PST by Dan Evans
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To: norraad
One reason we may not have robotics in the way Popular Science showed it 50 years ago is that robotics has developed differently. I don't know if this is true, but someone said we have seven microcontrollers in our car on average. Microcontrollers are the heart of robotics, so we could have seven robots in our car if you want to look at it that way. There is no robotics' standard that requires any particular sensors or actuators. Our robots may not walk around and serve breakfast in bed, and maybe that's not the kind of servant we need. All the same, robotics is a new thing even while it has been around a while. Robotics should be huge.
9 posted on 03/15/2004 12:39:36 PM PST by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: RightWhale
But I want a dumb robot, not an intelligent one, much more entertaining - Are dumb robots on sale at the DNC flea market?
10 posted on 03/15/2004 12:42:55 PM PST by IAmNotAnAnimal (Ranger Rules)
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