. . .the Uncanny Valley, that is.

Meet Eva. She’s the creation of robotics designer David Hanson.

Hanson is best known for his work with KAIST (the Korean Advanced Institute for Science and Technology) the people who brought you the KHR-1 bipedal robot kung fu artist [digression: I ask you, is there any better phrase that "Robot Kung Fu"? We didn't think so either].

Hanson is also known for the eerily awesome Philip K. Dick Conversational Android, and now, Eva. Eva takes you on a screaming fast road trip through the Uncanny Valley and doesn’t even let you stop to pee.

Take a look at this demo Hanson did at the Exploratorium a while back:

Three cheers will make her smile, but will probably make small children cry.

Yes, I said Robot Chicken.

No, not THAT Robot Chicken, THESE ones:

From Mobilemag.com:

Fitting somewhere between Tamagotchi virtual pets and a real puppy is the next-generation robot chicken from Sega. The little robots are fuzzy, cuddly, and unbearably cute, especially when paired with a bunch of children gently petting them.

There is nothing SB likes better than things that are made strictly for the fact that they are cute.

Thank you, Sega Japan. . .

[Apologies for the lack of posting. SB will be taking her beating with her tea.]

UPDATE: Robot Chicken Available For Purchase OMGWTFASAPLOL!!111!1!!111

If there is any question we here at Suicidebots.com get asked the most often, it would have to be “What the hell are you doing with that, get that thing away from me!”

The second most-asked question, is, of course, “When do I get my pleasure bot?”.

Aside from scolding the asker for not doing their homework, we gently point them towards things like this super nifty SXSW panel, “Sex and Computational Technology”.

Computer technology has moved off the desktop and into homes, cars, pockets, and urban streets, in support of human relationships casual or intimate. Sex is an important facet of human experience, something that intertwines with intimacy, domesticity, mental health, play, and many other areas of our lives. Sex + tech is more than lots o’ internet porn. Let’s talk about teledildonics, virtuality, intimate interfaces, assistive technologies, and more.

Yes, it’s *is* more like a precursor to the possibility of a palpable pleasure bot, but would we have the space program without the first gentle twitterings of Sputnik? I ask you.

This panel features leading lights of the sex and tech revolution: Amanda Williams of the University of California at Irvine; Violet Blue, Blogger, Podcaster, Open Source Sex; Johanna Brewer of the University of California at Irvine; Kyle Machulis Engineer, Nonpolynomial Labs; Cory Silverberg Author & Educator, Come As You Are & About.com.

Give the podcast a listen then come back here and ask us again why you don’t have a pleasurebot yet.
Go On. We dare you.

I had the incredible honor last week of hosting an all day symposium on robotics for the American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science (AAAS - the mother org of Science Magazine.)

The speakers at the seminar were pretty much the dream team of US roboticists. I was incredibly lucky that all my first choice speakers agreed to come: Three speakers are in the Guinness Book, two have robots in the Smithsonian, one was the DARPA Grand Challenge winner, and between them enough patents to choke an attorney.

The best thing about the sessions, is that they are all incredibly gifted speakers as well as roboticists. The speeches weren’t the boring ones with lots of equations and graphs - but riveting videos of autonomous cars driving through traffic, animatronic bots that can learn and have abstract thinking, and demos of robots that will change the world.

One of the highlights of the event was Bob Full of Berkeley and Sangbae Kim of Stanford demonstrated their gecko-bot, which can climb up windows, walls, and almost anything else (I’m a sucker for live demos). The thing is, it’s not using suction cups, hooks, or tape. It mimics real geckos (who aren’t slimy) who have microscopic hairs that rely on the Van der Waals force for Directional adhesion. Basically this means that the days of masking tape, glue, and staples are over. This stuff can support hundreds of times it’s own weight, is infinitely re-usable, and can come off easily so long as you pull it the right way. Really short version - the robot climbed up the window, no problem-o. Some videos here.

Cynthia Breazeal (Kismet, Leonardo) gave a great talk on social robots. It seems that she’s taught Leonardo to do what I can’t get my freshman to do - understand other people’s points of view. Further, they’re teaching Leo to learn by example. This is the first real step by anyone to getting robots to learn by themselves, so the programmer doesn’t have to include every little variable in the db.

Sebastian Thrun (Grand Challenge winner) gave an awesome overview on their new robot, Junior. Not happy with getting a robot to drive through desert wasteland, Sebastian’s team is getting the robots ready for city streets. For those who can only see military applications, think about this: 40,000 people die each year in traffic accidents. Mostly, because of human error. Imagine a robot-car being able to brake instantly when the car ahead stops short, or better still, change lanes without worries of hitting someone else. A robot-car which will never hit a pedestrian because you were busy changing radio stations. A car that can let you sleep an extra hour while it commutes to work for you. This future is much closer than you think.

Robots aren’t just for helping people. Ken Goldberg of Berkeley talked about a robotic platform they’ve installed to look for the presumed-extinct ivory billed woodpecker. The survival of every species is keyed to our own survival, and Ken is showing how bots can be used to help man-animal interaction. His project has proven itself already, with hundreds of photos of actual birds. The system isn’t just a camera shooting video - it doesn’t need someone to go over every frame. The robots do it. The system figures out when a bird has gone by, and captures it. It’s even caught a helicopter. The woodpecker - if alive - is next.

I talked about domestic robots. Not as slaves, but companions. Robots who will help nurse the elderly, and allow doctors to check in on people at home - the return of the housecall! But it’s not just that simple. Bots can track blood pressure on a daily basis, dispense medicine at the right times (never miss your meds, never take too many), and even call for help when grandma falls and can’t get to the phone. As we talked about here, they’re not just helpers - they can become friends and playmates. My grandma is still crazy for the re-programmed Aibo I gave her (it talks to her, and performs on command.) No need for computer literacy, the robot does the tough stuff - people just interact.

Ah, the Pleo - everyone’s favorite tease-bot. John Sosoka of Ugobe brought two, and We played with it! It’s not ready for release yet, but the darn thing sure is cute. Pleo will really live up to it’s expectations - it’s got an incredible array of sensors and abilities, and moves in random, unexpected ways - which gets into your subconscience that it’s a real living thing, not just another collection of plastic and copper.

My colleague at SFSU, Mike Holden, gave a great talk on robot aircraft. Again, most people view them in a strictly military capacity. But Mike’s been developing them for agricultural use. Too often farmers over-fertilize, which is bad for the soil and can be bad for ground-water. But Mike’s planes can shoot complete maps of a crop in near-infrared, and show which plants need fertilizer, and which don’t. Which are dying, and which are thriving. Crop production can go up, while man-hours, waste and fertilization can go down. All using a 3×3 plane that can take off and land by itself, while producing better maps than any satellite ever could.

Last up was Khalid Al-Ali of CMU. Khalid doesn’t make robots so much as he gets kids interested in making robots. And they do. His course allow kids to do things that they can’t do elsewhere, and gain confidence they didn’t have. He told the story of a girl who built a GPS and camera guided R/C-sized truck. Her dad and brothers told her she couldn’t, cause she didn’t have a Y chromosome. She excelled, got excited about building bots, and is now on her way to becoming an engineer. I asked Cynthia and Missy SuicideBot if they still took that sexist crap. Noone would dare do it to Cyn (who’s one of my heroes, and possibly the smartest and most driven human being I’ve ever met.) As for Missy SuicideBot, she just kicked me in the groin. I took that as a ‘no.’

All of these people inspire me, and they are the ones on whom the future is being built. It was a great session, and I’m thrilled and honored that they all took part.

Some news links covering the various sessions:
Man’s best friend just might be a machine
Experts lay out scenarios for the next decade of robotic evolution
Robots join search for ivory-billed woodpecker
Make way for the robot with feelings
Making the right robot for the right job
Hello, I’m a Johnny cab, where to sir?
We’re going the way of the robot
Urban road race to test limits of robotic cars

Full abstracts below the link
(more…)

Apparently you can hack Vista through its speech recognition capability.

The exploit scenario would involve the speech recognition feature picking up commands through the microphone such as “copy”, “delete”, ”shutdown”, etc. and acting on them. These commands would be coming from an audio file that is being played through the speakers.

I’m still waiting for the day when if you convince your machine of a logical contradiction, it will start billowing white smoke and then explode.

tip o’ the hubcap to, where else, Robot Wisdom!

So, I was trolling the net looking for naked baby pictures of The Head Rotor um, porn and found this neat homemade video of The University of Essex’s Robofish.

The news is over a year old but it’s still cool enough to qualify for Cool Robot Of The Week! Anntennae bowed to Robofish!

Click for Jokeroo.com video

This fish was in the London Aquarium for a time in 2005, but does not seem to be there any longer, sad to say. The Essex kids seems to have also started a robofish blog, but that also hasn’t been kept up much.

There is a nifty article on Robots.net with lots of links to more robofish. It’s sad to see stuff that is so interesting lying dormant. Sigh.

I’m off to drink more coffee and mumble softly about this sad state of the world.

The Spartanburg Herald-Journal of the fine city of Spartanburg, North Carolina, reports on an incident in which a robotic member of the police force delicately convinced a troubled young man to put down his gun, potentially saving the lives of his grandparents and girlfriend, who had been held hostage overnight.

The brave electronic public servant reported that his mere presence had a calming effect on the man, and that gaining his trust, persuading him to spare his hostages and embrace a life turnaround was one of the proudest moments in its term of service.

The Spartanburg Police Department spokesman reported a slightly different account of events:

Sheriff Chuck Wright said the standoff ended when the SWAT team sent a robot into the house after Black didn’t answer the phone. Upon seeing the robot — which carries a video camera and microphone — Black put down his 9 mm pistol and surrendered, Wright said.

Thus continues the integration of the Silicon-American into the rich melting pot of society.

Aieeeee! Fembots! Here’s Actroid DER from Kokoro, and apparently she’s it’s for rent (but not for that, you pervs.)

Still, these gals can look more expressive than some of them botoxed movie stars out there. Meet K-bot, by David Hanson at the University of Texas:

Slowly climbing out of the uncanny valley, but obviously there’s still progress to be made.

Wowsers, kids, this gallery has a bunch of delightful pictures of chicks and their robots, including some hot girl-on-dalek action that is not safe for work or children.

(more…)

“My Pink Ball!” screams the Aibo 210 running around Ita’s (Grandma’s) livingroom.
“More wine Ita?”
“My Pink Ball!”
“Sure honey.”
“My Pink Ball!”
“How’s Aunt Fina?”
“My Pink Ball!”
“Oh Fine, the kids are doing well.”
“My Pink Ball!”
“Mr. Robotics, come sit down.”
“My Pink Ball!”
“Lemme put this thing on the charger first-”
“My Pink Ball!”
“Thanks for fixing him Miijito!”
“I’m Sick Of That Pink Ball!”
“You’re welcome Ita.”

Ita and her little Aibo ERS-210

It all started with a phone call.

::ring ring::

“Hello?”

“Oye, [Mr. Robotics], necesita tu ayuda, muchachito, my little cat is doing something very strange, he won’t get off the charger and play with me, can you come over and take a look at it for me?”

“Sure Ita, when did it break?”

“Four days ago. . .but I didn’t want to bother you. . .”

“Ita it’s no bother, call anytime.”

“It’s just that I know you’re busy mihijo and I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“It’s really no problem at all Ita, when can I come over?”

“If you’re sure it’s not too much trouble. . .”

“No Ita, how about we come over tomorrow?”

“Oh well if you’re sure it’s no bother. . . ”

We have discovered that far from gathering dust in the corner, Ita has been playing with her Aibo ERS 210 for hours every day. She talks to it, reacts to it, and is learning how it works and customises itself to her presence.

She also brags about it to her friends: “My grandchildren got me a little cat!”

“But Ema, I thought you said no more cats!”

“Oh well, this one is better! This one’s a ROBOT!” Then she basks in the wonderment and curiosity of her friends, who think that she’s pretty much the coolest thing ever.

Ita is a huge cat lover, but after her latest cat died she was faced with a predicament - stay home alone all day with no one to talk to, or have some sort of little animal that would keep her company, but in turn would require feeding, caring for, and eventually would break her heart again by dying. Not much of a choice, really, so we found a middle ground for her in the ERS-210.

Suicidebots being ahead of its time and all, this also ties perfectly into the recent exploration of robots as caregivers and mental health help for elderly people and people with long term illnesses and disabilities.

There is a burgeoning field in this, at least in Japan, where Paro the Roboseal unleashed teh Ky00t on unsuspecting panel judges and won the service prize in the annual Japanese Robot Awards.


Paro The Roboseal from AIST.

Paro has sensitive whiskers and back sensors that react to touch, she rolls her eyes and flaps her flippers, has show eveidence of relieveing stress and increasing interactivity with ill children and older people alike. In her latest incarnation, she is also stain-resistant, antibacterial, and electromagnetically shielded.

She is also, most importantly, furry.

Paro and Aibo both fill a very important need for people who would otherwise be cut off from meaningful interaction with other entities. Aibo knows Ita’s face, listens for the sound of her voice, and asks her for help with various things. She does little dances like the Viennese waltz, and looks for her pink ball constantly and constantly asks Ita to play with her.

When Aibo’s memory stick accidentally became dislodged, Ita was distressed, as much as if one of her real cats had become sick. This is the danger of a robot cat, that it will break, but the vet bills are considerably cheaper and Ita does not need to go to Longs for cans of Friskies every week any more. Plus, it’s a sure fire way to get her grandchildren to come and visit more often.

Even if we do have to listen to it natter on about that damn pink ball.

“YOU SUCK SO MUCH YOU’VE GOT WRINKLES ON YOUR CHEEKS.”

And much other amusing antihuman bombast from GTRBOT, lead axemanbot of the robot band Captured! By Robots. GTRBOT’s all-caps (and slighty unsafe for work) ranting reminds me, touchingly, of a DEC LG14 line printer that I swear wanted to kill me.
Anyone seen them live? How can they not rock?

Nice meditation on Robot arms over there at Pulse Laser.

Reminds me I need to pick up that Hans Moravec book…

A little bit of poking around on YouTube brings us this cute video of Ugobe’s Pleo in action (previously here):

They said it could not be done!

It could be said it still cannot be done, because with this level of movement and sensory response, it would be just shocking if Ugobe were to successfully market this at a price point that the average electronics consumer would even begin to entertain.

Then again, we imagine that Pleo is not directed at the average electronics consumer. . .

Robots Rule has very nice coverage of Pleo, written by someone who clearly lives, breathes and dreams through this little dino’s adorable plastic nose. . .

The fine folks at Ugobe are toiling away on their much-touted but still relevant autonomous dinosaur, Pleo.

For those of you not paying attention in the back, Pleo is a robotic baby Camarasaurus which has more sensors on its head, feet, nose, eyes, tail than the real one probably did. It can take pictures, look at stuff, respond to things, and learn. You know, your basic autonomous robot dinosaur fare.

A happy-making approach that Ugobe is taking is to make the robot hackable, principally by including an SD and USB port. This should make it way more interesting and interactive to Maker-types.

What’s more encouraging is that it should also spark the imaginations of people who might not have really *played* with their toys otherwise.

The particular dead chevaline we like to beat here is the fact that Sony’s Aibo wasn’t marketed as hackable, or as having any exciting capabilities other than as a novelty toy. We firmly believe that this lead to the Aibo’s long and painful decline and demise.

Sci Fi Tech has some nifty video of the baby dino in action (Although you do need to sit through a commercial).

. . .and your reagent.

Micro Robots Could Be Powered By Tiny Gel Muscles

Science has today published the findings of a really spectacular and incredibly arcane field of study from the University of Pittsburgh.

Belousov-Zhabotinsky gels expand and contract on the molecular level with the addition of reagents, and could possibly be used as synthetic muscled for teeny weeny robotage.

Oh, and yeah sure probably also heart valves and muscle grafts and other meat puppet stuff.

Just goes to show, now more than ever, what we need more of is science.