Japan Launches Talking Humanoid Robot Into Space 87
An anonymous reader writes "Kirobo, a talking humanoid robot, has been launched into space and is headed to the International Space Station. From the article: 'Japan has launched the world's first talking humanoid robot "astronaut" toward the International Space Station. Kirobo — derived from the Japanese words for "hope" and "robot" — was among five tons of supplies and machinery on a rocket launched Sunday from Tanegashima in southwestern Japan, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said. The childlike robot was designed to be a companion for astronaut Koichi Wakata and will communicate with another robot on Earth, according to developers. Wakata is expected to arrive at the space station in November.'"
Re:no article? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm going to call this more of a stunt than anything else, sorry.
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Japanese Toy Story
Sounds awesome. Now why hasn't this happened yet?
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Admit it, you are thinking of a category F toy aren't you? pervert! ;-)
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That should be the marketing line for RealDolls: Expensive, but still much cheaper than a real wife!
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No marketing can disguise the inherent creepyness of RealDolls.
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If you think the regular RealDolls are creepy, what do you think of their Boy Toy Dolls [boytoydolls.com] line?
Lipstick on a pig (Score:2)
It's basically a toy - less than a foot high, I think - it responds to basic verbal pre-programmed commands.
"modelled on a beloved Japanese cartoon figure, Astro Boy, it would be quite wrong, indeed grossly offensive, to describe it as a toy."
-"You can clean up a pig, put a ribbon on it's tail, spray it with perfume, but it is still a pig."
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It's not a stunt at all. It's a beautiful way to improve your weapons-delivery systems without overtly creating a "missile". The H-II series of rockets lets Japan keep the capacity to deploy satellites (commercial or military) and keeping up with basic rocket tech lets them create a crash ICBM plan should the need arise.
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I'm going to call this more of a stunt than anything else, sorry.
A stunt? Not at all. This is obviously how skynet gets control of all the weapons satellites.
Ask yourself this - what do robots do when all the humans are sleeping?
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Dream of electric sheep?
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no article?
Here's an one about Kirobo, from the Guardian [theguardian.com].
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no article?
Here's an one about Kirobo, from the Guardian [theguardian.com].
Someone didn't follow the link in the summery...
The Guardian link in my previous comment was posted a few minutes before there were any links in the summary. RedHackTea also posted a link before the summary was corrected, choosing wisely to pick an alternative resource. Much to my surprise (not), slashdotitors are able to update a summary after it's been made public — in turn, that correction changed the original meaning to both of our comments; in my case, negatively.
If the editors had linked to a third resource, such as The Indedendent (which
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Kirobo = Kibo + Robot (Score:2)
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On TV, you could see him taking zero gravity tests in a special airplane, just like the human astronaut do.
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I suspect less than one percent of people online are old enough to even know who Kibo is. :)
I'm sorry Dave-san, I cannot do that (Score:5, Funny)
Dave-san, I cannot let you jeopardize this mission.
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Please open the pod bay doors Kibo.
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And good riddance! (Score:2)
What's wrong with the other non-Japanese astronauts being "companions" for their Japanese astronauts? Since when are machines acceptable substitutes for humans in social situations?
and WTF is wrong with people? We already have plenty of robots in space. No need for any of them to talk or be humanoid. Those things just make them direct competitors for humans WHO PRESENTLY DO EVERYTHING BETTER.
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It gets kids interested in space
Re: And good riddance! (Score:1)
Since when are machines acceptable substitutes for humans in social situations?
Just ask my ex-wife that question and she'll show you her vibrator collection.
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They also use up a lot of energy. There are pros and cons of course. They use more energy than humans to do less useful work BUT they can get tht energy from solar collectors or nuclear more directly than humans (without the massive delay of turning it into sugars first).
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In Japan, the mainstream religions are being challenged by newcomer Robotology, the worship of impractical robotic figures.
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In Japan, the mainstream religions are being challenged by newcomer Robotology, the worship of impractical robotic figures.
Considering that the mainstream religion in the west is worship of an ancient torture/execution device I don't see impractical robotic figures as less worthy of my worship.
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1. Machines are better at loitering in orbit and performing occasional or frequent routine tasks, as evidenced by the number of satellites that do that
2. Machines are better at going to other planets or satellites, observing and sampling them, as evidenced by the fact that they regularly do that, and humans don't.
3. Machin
I knew we did it wrong (Score:1)
We voted for hope and change, and we got "Kirobo"
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Meme overload (Score:1)
I for one welcome our...oh, fuck you! Too easy!
I wonder (Score:1)
Is Japanese easier to process for voice recognition than English?
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Is Japanese easier to process for voice recognition than English?
That's actually a very good question. I'm not all that familiar with voice recognition engines but at least the more sophisticated ones should take language structure into account as well. If the engine assigns certainty percentages to words in a sentence the words surrounding a relatively uncertain word could be used to deduct what the uncertain word is so that it becomes a structurally correct sentence.
Grammatically, yes, practically, no. (Score:5, Informative)
Is Japanese easier to process for voice recognition than English?
Grammatically, yes, practically, no.
Japanese is more regular than English, and it is SOV order instead of SVO order. Subject -> Object -> Verb means you have your subject object, and the parameter object, before you're told to call the Subject object's member function.
Idiomatically, however, there's a huge amount of context use to imply subject and object, so if you were to try and parse spken Japanese, you might have a problem if you weren't there for the start of the conversation. I rather expect that it's limited to completely context free full sentences and/or simple commands, rather than understanding idiomatic usage.
Someone else mentioned homonyms; you can get a homonym of "you are a tall man" that could also mean "you have just crossed a bridge" and "you are a martian" (one of my favorite Japanese puns, actually, because of the story a friend tells which goes with it), but again, it requires idiomatic usage to get to that point, so practically, you can eliminate ambiguity intentionally, the same way that you can avoid puns in English, by further constraining how you are allowed to talk to the thing.
Or you could just flag ambiguous idiomatic usage, and have it ask for clarification, which is what most robot engineers would do.
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Interesting - it sounds like Japanese is an RPN version of English's infix notation (where the verb is a binary "operation" acting on noun arguments).
I wonder how that affects thought processes - with RPN, you wouldn't need the (often erroneous or omitted) parenthetical commas that makes long English sentences so confusing.
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It really depends what you want the robot to do. Japanese is very precise and concise when it comes to conveying basic factual information or requests. Sharp has said that all their future products will incorporate voice control, and for what they expect to receive as input ("set temperature to 23C", "clean the kitchen") it works well. I tried it out with one of their robot vacuum cleaners and even with my foreign accent and arthritis induced mumbling it had no trouble understanding me in a busy shop.
Step 1 of the evil plan is complete (Score:1)
Here comes step 2:
We'll beam him cheesy movies,
The worst we can find.
It'll have to receive and record them all,
And we'll monitor his hard drive.
And because our robot can't control
Where the movies begin or end.
It'll try to have enough free disk space
With the help of its human friends.
Glad I don't live in Tokyo (Score:1)
We all know how this will end. We've all seen the Japanese movies. Tokyo is going to end up in ashes and rubble. Then Godzilla will wake up, and things will get messy.
oh my. (Score:4, Funny)
Japan Launches Talking Humanoid Robot Into Space
wow, they must really hate when robots talk.
A different side of HAL (Score:2)
"I won't, I won't open the pod bay doors; nanny nanny poo poo! Davie Gravy, I betcha can't get in without a helmet, betcha betcha, chickeeeen!"
Waste of weight (Score:2, Insightful)
It costs $5000-$10,000 per pound to ship things into space, and they sent a talking companion robot that doesn't even speak the same language as any of the astronauts?
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They probably had an allocation of weight. They could ship anything they wanted in that allocation, from a toy to dried whale meat.
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I presume you had an issue with the guitar being shipped up that was used for the recent music videos, too.
Every astronaut has an allocation of personal weight allowed. How they use that weight is up to them and their government.
Remember these people are often up there for months at a time. They have a right to some entertainment and amusement, whatever form that may take and however "useless" that might be to the research done by the missions.
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It wasn't the fact that they sent something that is purely for entertainment, the problem is that the entertainment chosen isn't usable by anyone who is currently up there. The doll is Japanese-only, and none of them speak Japanese.
I just thought they would have been better off with a few pounds of chocolate or something, instead of a toy that none of them can use.
Useless (Score:3, Interesting)
I have never understood Japanese robot innovations or the hype around them. What they are doing so superficial and useless. They intently focus on the mechanics of robotic movement and facial design while either ignoring or paying superficial lip service to the Artificial Intelligence aspect. The moment the robot interacts with a human the illusion will be broken. Most of these Japanese robots have essentially the same AI as an IRC bot. Restricted list of recognized commands and related actions. Obsessively focusing on the form and ignoring the soul of the machine.
These are useless toys outside of manufacturing and very specialized industries. And frankly the problem of robot mechanics is an easy one to solve. Just copy Nature.
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I am glad they are perfecting this aspect. When the AI is smart enough (and compact enough), it will have a suitable container to be put into.
On that day we will welcome or new robotic overlords (or sexy fembots).
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I have never understood Japanese robot innovations or the hype around them. What they are doing so superficial and useless. They intently focus on the mechanics of robotic movement and facial design while either ignoring or paying superficial lip service to the Artificial Intelligence aspect.
The Japanese are wiser than you. They know that cuteness and likability are largely visual in nature. Perhaps if the city your grandparents lived in were obliterated with an atom bomb for helping with a Holocaust then you would be more sensitive to what happens when sentient beings can be easily marginalized.
Now, since you may have gained a bit more understanding... Would you rather do likability testing on self aware robots? Or, would you rather the "uncanny valley" not be an easy excuse for genocid
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Yes it is. No it isn't.
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The hardware and software (AI) challenges involved in robot locomotion are worthy targets in and of themselves. Take a look at Boston Dynamics' work for DARPA and tell me that it's "superficial and useless".
one caveat (Score:1)
* Soul required for activation not included.
Why do the biting dolls from Barbarella (Score:2)
Mr. Clippy ... is that you? (Score:2)
Wow ... Mr. Clippy ... is that you? Congratulations on your serious career-move!
Making digital mistakes in computer-land apparently is no guarantee for not repeating them in the physical world ...
- Jesper
someone should experiement with this (Score:2)