BS: Truely scary!

Subject: BS: Truely scary!
From: beardedbruce
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 02:18 PM

(thread title tongue in cheek)


Robot acts like a toddler

POSTED: 11:47 a.m. EDT, June 8, 2007

Story Highlights• Japanese scientists develop humanoid toddler
• Robot wobbles like a child who is learning how to walk
• It changes facial expressions and can rock back and forth
• Scientists want to better understand child development
:
OSAKA, Japan (AP) -- A group of scientists in Japan have developed a robot that acts like a toddler to better understand child development.

The Child-Robot with Biomimetic Body, or CB2, was developed by a team of researchers at Osaka University in western Japan and is designed to move just like a real child between 1 and 3 years old.

CB2, at just over 4 feet tall and weighing 73 pounds, changes facial expressions and can rock back and forth.

The robot's movements are smooth as it is fitted with 56 actuators in lieu of muscle. It has 197 sensors for touch, small cameras working as eyes, and an audio sensor. CB2 can also speak using an artificial vocal cord.

When it stands on its feet, the robot wobbles like a child who is learning how to walk.

Minoru Asada, a professor at Osaka University who leads the project, said Friday the robot was developed to learn more about child development.

"Our goal is to study human recognition development such as how the child learns a language, recognizes objects and learns to communicate with his father and mother," he said.

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Wesley S
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 02:23 PM

Sooooo - Why not study real children? Is there a shortage?

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 02:41 PM

They do it because they can, Wesley. ;-) Just wait. I'm sure they will do even weirder things any time soon. I've seen some movies lately with depictions of the young people's night life in the downtowns of big cities in Japan. Kind of looks like being in a high-tech lunatic asylum in hell...

Mind you, that's how I see Las Vegas too. ;-) I like quiet places.

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: gnu
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 02:43 PM

No shortage of money, apparently.

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 02:59 PM

They have robot dogs too. Maybe they will create robot garden slugs to help Japanese gardeners learn how to combat the slimy little monsters.

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 03:05 PM

A 73-pound, 4-foot tall one year old child? Cool.

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 03:17 PM

Is it toilet trained yet?

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 03:57 PM

How much you want to bet it is next year's Christmas "must have"?

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Mickey191
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 05:24 PM

There some nutty things out there. Just got a Collections,Inc. catalog. For $15.00 you can buy a stuffed, real looking, snuggling kitten or puppy curled up in a nice little bed ---- who appears to breathe. With the aid of a D battery the tummy goes up & down. Great! No poop & no food bill. BUT no loving kisses or purrs.

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 11:29 PM

Two years ago a grandson was given a robot dinosaur. Fairly primitive.
Now if one takes a bird, apparently a descendant from a dinosaur, and applies stem cell, etc. technology, perhaps one may be able, in stages, to regress the organism to something more interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Jun 07 - 02:49 AM

Q - that premise was the basis of an episode of 'Red Dwarf' where a pet sparrow was regressed with a time paddle into a T Rex that then ran amok and ate several people. I think his name was Kevin.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: terrier
Date: 09 Jun 07 - 08:12 PM

I wondered if this 73-pound, 4-foot tall one year old child was male or female? What colour was the nursery painted? Will it have a one to one relationship with a parent and will it be taken to Kindergarten (playschool)to interact with other 73-pound, 4-foot tall one year old children?

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Mickey191
Date: 09 Jun 07 - 08:16 PM

Q, They've already done that. GWBush ring a bell?

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Jun 07 - 08:59 PM

Mickey, I was looking for "something interesting" as a result. I could apply several adjectives to GWB, but interesting is not one of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Truely scary!
From: Joe_F
Date: 09 Jun 07 - 09:31 PM

I read about robot cockroaches some years ago. How far we have progressed!