Emotional Robot KOBIAN
Meet KOBIAN, a creepy new Japanese robot that show “emotions” with its face:
The robot is installed with 48 “actuators” which allow its face and body to move in a variety of ways.
It shows happiness by opening its eyes and mouth wide and raising its arms, and sorrow by drooping its head and covering its eyes.
The robot’s hands are covered with a soft material which is supposed to replicate the feeling of a human hand.
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Categories: Technology
Robot recycles pet poop
Meet “Sum,” Tohoku Kankyo’s new robot trashcan that will take your old food and pet poop and turn it into eco-friendly compost:
Using some sort of fancy bio substance that breaks down garbage and takes away smelliness, the Sum can process about 600 grams of poop and/or food each day.
They retail for about $900, and require “bio” refills every 4 months or so.
[hat tip to Ken Y-N]
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Categories: Technology
Broken Robot Nozomi
Street performer Broken Robot Nozomi puts on a sad show about war:
And has a sad experience with a dog:
And finally, a performance about the environment:
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Categories: General Japan
Scientists develop maid robot
Reuters reports on a robot that can do some basic household chores:
Japanese scientists have created a robot that mops up, does the laundry and even cleans the kitchen. The ‘Assistant Robot’ is the brain child of Tokyo University’s Information and Robot Technology (IRT) Research Initiative system research centre and a slew of japanese companies including Toyota Corp, Sega, Panasonic and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
The robot can “see” three dimensional objects and locate them as well as recognising when a job has not been completed properly and move to complete it. Laundry is said to be one of its favourite chores. It can find a dirty shirt, throw it into a washing machine and push the buttons to wash and rinse and spin dry clothes. But those who think this might be the answer to their cleaning woes can’t rejoice just yet. The research centre says it will be another decade or two before the robot can be mass-produced.
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Categories: Technology