Artoo is not amused. (Image courtesy of Nexus404.com)
Robots have been a staple of sci-fi movies pretty much since movies first started. In 1926, robots were a major feature of the classic silent film Metropolis, and in many ways, it’s been a long wait to see if they would ever catch up to the classic man-in-a-metal-suit imagineering of the cinemas.
Now I promise, we’re not going to regularly run any kind of tech news articles here, but this one was just too weird to pass up, and given our affection for classic sci-fi and old movies’ obsession with the future, this article is right up our alley whether we like it or not.
Perhaps the Japanese have come closest to the image we have seen of robots in the movies recently. This should make tonyola happy, but it’s not what you might think. Imagine a robotic Grace Kelly, and you’re starting to get on the right track. So yes, it’s a robot you might see in an early movie… but only if that movie were a classic Fred Astaire-style musical.
Seriously, the potential of this new technology to get weird is practically off the charts. Having been designed around the concept of making the robot easily programmable by anyone, even those with no robotics experience at all, it promises to be able to move and operate in pretty much any fashion the user could want. And let’s face it, it’s the Japanese, they’ve already thought of every eventuality that you could. Yes, probably that too.
In addition, it has a video-recognition technology, which is designed to allow the robot to watch videos of people singing and acting, and interpret their facial movements to allow the robot to mimic appropriate facial expressions to make it more life-like. No word yet, however, on how well it does the Domo Arigoto, Mr. Roboto robot-dance. I’d guess very poorly. It will still be years before a robot can do the robot dance as well as a human can.
I’m sure there are already movies out there that explore all these possibilities, but perhaps it would be best to defer to Charles’ knowledge on that topic.
Perhaps some of this technology could be implemented on the current Canadian Prime Minister, to help make him appear more lifelike and human…
When I heard about this I was creeped out and excited at the same time. I mean, dealing with women is not always easy. We love you, but you are darn confusing! Now here's a woman that isn't quite a woman and is programmed in a completely different way. Creepy. However, I can change the programming. Exciting!
That's not a robot – that's Ashlee Simpson.
Apparently this one isn't lip-synching. Which isn't saying much, but it does put it one notch above Ashlee Simpson.
Except for a few weird Japanese contraptions, the world of the Sci-Fi droid has been replaced with the reality of a welding robot or a 5-axis CNC mill. I think this might be my answer for the vaporware question too: A true android type robot.
Well, adult erotic entertainment drove the popularization of private-movie-at-home technologies, so mixing one part Stepford Wife to one part robot Maria from Metropolis would make for some very compelling sex toys ('though they'd be too big to keep in a drawer in the nightstand…)
The training-by-mimicking aspect could turn Best Buy's Geek Squad computer nerds into bonafide out-call sex workers…
you've put a fair amount of thought into this.
Canada has a prime minister? Who knew?
Not much of one…
I could not pull my eyes away from "her" oddly giant hands. "She" can dance, sing, and slap you silly.
Maybe "her" hands were "upgraded" to provide superior "grip"… Reach-arounds, anyone…?
I assume you saw the article's tags, then?
Holy shit, those backup dancers almost seem real!
My Dream Girl!
<img src="http://www.designboom.com/history/female_robots/41.jpg">
Isn't this robot breaking one of Asimov's laws? The one about making me want to murder robots? Yeah, that one.