[ALADYBLOND]

June 10, 2005?Quick, which one is the robot?
Repliee Q1 (at left in both pictures) appeared yesterday at the 2005 World Expo in Japan, where she gestured, blinked, spoke, and even appeared to breathe. Shown with co-creator Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University, the android is partially covered in skinlike silicone. Q1 is powered by a nearby air compressor, and has 31 points of articulation in its upper body.

Internal sensors allow the android to react "naturally." It can block an attempted slap, for example. But it's the little, "unconscious" movements that give the robot its eerie verisimilitude: the slight flutter of the eyelids, the subtle rising and falling of the chest, the constant, nearly imperceptible shifting so familiar to humans.

Surrounded by machines that draw portraits, swat fast-moving balls, and snake through debris, Q1 is only one of the showstoppers at the expo's Prototype Robot Exposition, which aims to showcase Japan's growing role in the robotics industry.

But given Q1's reported glitch-related "spasms" at the expo, it may be a while before androids are escorting tour groups or looking after children?which may be just as well. "When a robot looks too much like the real thing, it's creepy," Hiroshi told the Associated Press.

?Ted Chamberlain

[Freddy]

Thats a great story there ALADYBLOND, I couldn't resist looking further and found this page with some movies on it.
They're BIG movies, so I am jealous of you broadbanders....in time, in time.

http://ed-02.ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp/lab/development/Humanoid/ReplieeQ1/ReplieeQ1_eng.htm

[Art]

Very cool indeed! Thanks for sharing!

[ALADYBLOND]

i am jealous of those other guys too i just have dial up....... :swing: ~~alady

[FuzzieDice]

Cool find! Even on DSL (which I have) it takes awhile for the movies to download. I'm just now trying to download the first one.

This android looks quite life-like. I can't wait to see how they make them walk around, etc. and interact in a social situation. That'll be neat! I don't think they are too far off now for it. The technology has come a long way in such a few short decades.

[Freddy]

I'm amazed by the lifelike skin they have made.  btw, if anyone (and I now know you are Fuzzie) ever wants to try making a skin for a robot, hand, head or something but doesn't have the kind of money that those guys do then; you can get some surprisingly good results from using liquid latex and mixing it with waterbased paints.  It's available from most craft shops and costs around ?15.00 for 1 litre, it lasts ages too.  You can make molds from plastoceine.

[FuzzieDice]

That's cool! Hey, check this out:

http://www.androidworld.com/prod19.htm

Someone already is trying an android project. Wonder what they are using for skin?

From their link on what she can/can't do:

What Valerie will NOT be able to do:

    * Eat or drink
    * Breathe
    * Perform other bodily functions.
    * Hurt people (Asimov's first law)
    * Have sex.
    * Put her head under water.
    * Take any water or other liquids into her head or mouth.
    * Drive a car (because she can't go outside).
    * Run a lawn mower (because she can't go outside).
    * Physical actions which people cannot do.
    * Sleep

Rather humorous.

[Art]

I saw an image of her several years ago. Don't know if it was the same company but then she was used primarily as a security mannequin, equipped with cameras in her eyes which in turn, reported any activity to store security monitors.

Interesting development....

[FuzzieDice]

Of Valerie? I believe Valerie is a private group developing it. The images they do admit is a manequin at this point. Maybe it's the same maniquin they are using as a base to build the android by.

[Freddy]

I glad about the car driving.. :coolsmiley:

[FuzzieDice]

Freddy - why bother having an android drive a car if you can make the car drive itself?

[Freddy]

Good point - I thought that too.