Viewing items with Tag: "robot"

I hate those guys on the streets of any main city in the paper thin black suits and the dragonball Z hairstyles that harrass girls walking down the street to come to their snack bar or to work at their snack bar or to 'go for tea' or whatever, and if the trend is anything to go by these guys could be replaced by robots in the near future! Now this is not exactly true, its a wild guess by myself, but thats the way things are going in Osaka.

Due to new laws introduced in 2005, informing the public about local adult information centers via street solicitors is now against the law. This didnt stop them however, as they were replaced with (mostly old, homeless looking) guys holding signs pointing the direction of these centers, with "ore ni kike" written on them allowing interested clients to ask the guy for more information, which is not considered illegal. Well not until the end of last month.

So have the police and government finally ridden the streets of these nuisences? Of course not. They have come up with an ingenious, very Japanese solution to the problem. Dress a robot in a sailor suit school uniform and give the sign to him! This ridiculously expensive 'touting tool', which underwent a $4000 upgrade since its previous road traffic directing job, will occassionally raise and lower the "Ask me!" banner and attract customers that way.

“It’s a robot, so no problem” says a spokesperson for the information center. Yer and thats gonna last long... I'm looking forward to robot bankrobbers where the owners will be able to give the same argument destroying excuse "but... its a robot! so no probem!"

A Video of the HAL-5 Robot Suit "HAL 5: Hybrid Assistive Limb 5".



This group started the HAL project at Tsukuba University. Their site isn't so hot, but check it out at Cyberdyne. And just for the sake of comparison, the BEAR suit by a guy with a mustache.

Keisuke Kishi has a nice website of pre-"Spirited Away" art, including 360 degree views around this and other sculptures.



"Ministry of Mystic Machines" is a collection of Japanese style figurative art work which are set in the imaginary world of alternate reality that is much like the Edo period. (Japan,the early 17th century to the middle of 19th century.)


His "Piratto" sculpture kinda looks like that ice fish they just found in Antarctica, doesn't it?

A quality moment captured on film during a presentation to demonstrate the incredibleness of Honda's new robot, Ashimo. Using sensors in its feet to precisely balance itself over obstacles as tricky as a set of stairs, and with human like motions and seemless movement, the audience is naturally impressed. Until...



I just love how Ashimo soldiers on and keeps on talking, despite having just cracked his skull on the concrete floor, a fall from which he made no attempt to cusion the blow of. It seems our robot friends still have a way to go. Currently they are pretty accurately portraying the life of an average boozed up male arriving home at 2am on a Friday night.

Source Japundit.