The first robot in the world was an Edo period miniature humanoid that served tea, circa 17th century. My friend Christine and I found a replica for sale at Maker Faire last weekend.So cool!
Fred Schodt writes all about this robot in Inside the Robot Kingdom,an out-of-print must-read about Japan's robotics industry.
80 years ago, someone made this giant Buddha-like humanoid robot that can change its expression and move its head with surprising ease in order to commemorate the new Showa emperor. Some consider it the oldest robot in history—at the time, people called it a "manmade human." The robot was refurbished in Osaka last week after years of collecting dust.
Link (Japanese)
The Stupid Robot Contest is an annual show held by Meiwa Electronics to determine whose robot is the silliest. There are just three criteria that a robot must meet in order to be entered in this contest:
1. It must be mechanical
2. It must be completely useless from a societal point of view.
3. It must make people laugh.
Pictured above is Papa Robopucho, a disfigured little box bot that plays the red-flag-white-flag game by himself, and then occasionally topples over and cries for help.
Some of the other contestants last year were a chorus of pregnant wife robots, a child robot that did push-ups, and and a "moe" robot dressed like a maid from a maid cafe.
Bacarobo.com via Impress Watch (Japanese)
A company called Cross Borders Inc created a fun little program that lets you generate your own QR codes—a 3-dimensional bar code common that can be read by cell phone camera. All you have to do is enter a URL, and the service dispatches an army of little robots that start off standing at random but quickly start hopping into position until they make sense together and can be scanned by IR.
Continue reading "Create Your Own QR Code With an Army of Little Robots" »
This cute little bug-like robot is actually a universal remote control controller. In development by Toshiba, the 8-inch tall ApriPoco communicates with IR signals from your remote—and, of course, with you—to save you from fumbling with complicated buttons on the various control devices scattered around your living room. It's similar in tech to voice-activated gadgets like GPS, except you can give it your own commands without having to memorize the preset ones.
The cuteness is intentional, too. Researchers are hoping it will stave off frustration of people who are otherwise impatient with dumb machines. Think Furby with a function. It's like having a pet!
Link (Thanks, Sam!)
If you see little white styrofoam robots hanging out in Tokyo this spring, don't worry—it's not an apocalyptic bot invasion, it's the pollen-fighting mercenaries from Weathernews, Inc. These 2.2lb-heavy bots are just a foot tall and have eyes that glow in five different colors that indicate the level of pollen in the air. (In Japan, it's mostly cedar and cypress that induces allergies.)
200 volunteers will be hanging these bots near their homes. The monitoring units inside the robots will record the pollen levels in the air and send reports, updated by the minute, to HQ, which will consequently zap the info to the pollen map.
Not that many people these days know Japanese traditional dance. So the best way to teach kids so that the art form doesn't die out is to program a robot to do it and dispatch it to classrooms across the country. From the looks of it, the bot's a pretty good teacher—even without legs—and the kids look happy to be learning from him.
This is Mayu Ichinose. She loves robots—or, as she states it in her blog subhed: "Robot is love." She's a model, a prolific blogger, and a total Gundam geek. She goes to almost every robot competition, robot convention, and robot show, and she even sometimes dressed up as one.
If you read Japanese,or if you just want to ogle over photos of her, her blog is here.
When a group of human scientists can make a monkey in North Carolina maneuver a robot in Tokyo using neurological signals, you know you've arrived at a benchmark in technological advancement.
Read about it
This is Massanova, a tiny little robot made with old nuts and bolts. He was hand-designed by artist Jun Tanaka, he's less than 2 cm tall, but he's still cute as a button. Massanova = machine + cassanova. Maybe. There's also a doggy version (pic after the jump).
Continue reading "Massanova: The Bite-Sized Robot Made of Electronic Parts" »
Don't feel like exercising today? Don't worry, the robot will do it for you. Fujitsu's new robot, HOAP 3, can dribble pass, and shoot. The day when we sit down as spectators to an all-robot soccer game pitting competing robotics firms against each other feels suddenly not that far away.
(Image via Mainichi Daily News & Reuters)
A robot called Cube-Kun debuted earlier this month at the TEPIA exhibition in Tokyo. His sole purpose? To solve Rubix Cubes within seconds. He has a giant flat screen for a face. When you give him a Cube, he quickly registers what the six sides look like, displays that on his screen, and then figures out a solution in approximately one second. Then his hands get to work. Created by Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
via Impress Watch (Japanese)
After many years of hard core research and first hand experience, researchers at the prestigious Waseda University have come to the conclusion that a $200,000 robot is the best kind of Japanese wife. Twenty-One is the first robot that has a touch as soft as a human's. Roboticists have never before been able to balance strength and flexibility to this degree—it cost millions of dollars and seven years to develop.
Twenty-One's creators made her slightly shorter and a lot plumper than the average Japanese woman—this girl is 5 feet tall and weighs 245 pounds. Unlike the rough-from-dishwashing fingers of human housewives, her hands are soft and smooth as silicon and have 241 pressure-sensors to gently massage you with. She talks, but only when you tell her to, and only what you program her to say. At this stage in her life, she only has 15 minutes of battery life per charge, which means you only have to deal with her for 15 minutes at a time. A chauvinistic husband's dream!
Link (Thanks, Sam!)
