A Human Touch?
From: Christian Science Monitor - 02/05/2004 - page 17
By: Lori Valigra

Robots are expected to become more human in appearance and behavior in the
next 10 years or so, and move out of the laboratory and into consumer
households once a "killer app" has been found. Commercially available robots
are primarily confined to the industrial sector, but sales of personal
service robots are expected to increase nearly fourfold in the next several
years. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe estimates that 2.1
million service robots will be shipped between 2003 and 2006, and will become
more and more commonplace. With advancements, such robots could function as
companions for the elderly, personal office assistants, or housekeepers.
Companies and institutions that are laying the groundwork for such milestones
include Sony, whose humanoid QRIO robot sings, dances, and runs 15 yards a
second; Honda, whose ASIMO robot can turn corners and climb stairs; MIT,
which is working on Cardea, a mechanized personal assistant that can open
doors and move around on a Segway Human Transporter; and the University of
Tokyo, which is developing a multi-layered artificial skin for robots with
1,000 organic, pressure-sensitive transistors. The Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology is engaged in a nine-year project to develop
robotic caretakers and assistants for the elderly or disabled, a surgical
robot system, and other machines with yearly $1 million grants from the
Korean Science and Engineering Foundation. The general trend is to make
robots more humanoid so the people they interact with have a greater
emotional investment, but MIT grad student Aaron Edsinger notes that making
robots too human-like could be off-putting.  

Read the entire article at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0205/p17s02-stct.html

Sony Qrio:
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/top_nf.html

Asimo robot:
http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/

Cardea:
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/cardea/

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology:
http://robot.kaist.ac.kr/project/wheelchair/main.htm

---

Humanoids on the March
From: Economist - 03/10/2005 - Vol. 374, No. 8417, P. 3

Japan's industrial behemoths are racing to see which of them will produce the
most sophisticated humanoid robots in a competition spurred by corporate
rivalry, rapid technological advancements, a hunger for publicity, and the
potential for tapping a vast new market. Breakthrough humanoid machines from
Japan include Honda's Asimo, a walking robot whose speed, agility, and
friendliness is being continually tweaked; Sony's QRIO, which walks,
navigates by itself, recovers from falls, understands a limited series of
spoken commands, and can link wirelessly to the Internet as well as broadcast
the visual input received by its cameras; and Toyota's Partner robots, one of
which is equipped with artificial lungs, lips, and fingers so it can play a
trumpet. Non-humanoid robots currently outnumber humanoid machines in both
the industrial and domestic markets, and roboticists such as Carnegie Mellon
University's Takeo Kanade say this makes sense from a practical point of
view. "The human body itself is not necessarily the best design for a robot,
contrary to most people's convictions that evolution has made us the perfect
machine," notes Kanade. Beyond publicity, creating humanoid robots allows
manufacturers to demonstrate their technological expertise, and reap rewards
from supplementary advances that happen en route. One of the long-term
prospects for humanoid robots is their role in assisted living situations,
especially as the baby-boomer generation enters retirement age. Honda's
Jeffrey Smith says, "We human beings have engineered our environment to
accommodate our physiology. So a very efficient share for operating in that
world is a humanoid one." Smith says such robots will be in homes once the
price drops to that of a car, while Sony's Hideki Komiyama expects them
eventually to be as common as cell phones. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=S%27%29%280%2DP%21%5B%2B%23P%224%0A

Links:
QRIO
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/top_nf.html

Humanoid robot conducts Beethoven symphony
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4845

This one's no dog
http://www.time.com/time/2003/inventions/invqrio.html

World's First Running Humanoid Robot
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200312/03-060E/

Robotic power
http://www.mentalbay.com/inrobovent8inrobo.shtml

QRIO movies
http://photomatt.net/2004/02/21/curious-qrio

Sony shows off jogging robot
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3330183.stm

Sony Teaches Their Qrio Humanoid Robot How To Jog
http://www.newstarget.com/000949.html

Sony QRIO - dancing, running and pitching robot presentation
http://weblog.cemper.com/a/200312/21-sony-qrio-dancing-running-and-pitching-robot-presentation.php

What you need to know about QRIO
http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/4274

Sony's New Bipedal QRIO Robot
http://www.gearbits.com/archives/000429.html

Sony QRIO
http://www.flakmag.com/misc/qrio.html

Sony's Humanoid Robot Makes a Splash 
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0%2C4149%2C1430266%2C00.asp

QRIO: The Robot That Could
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/may04/0504sony.html

Takeo Kanade
http://www.ri.cmu.edu/people/kanade_takeo.html

Sony's hip-shaking 'Qrio' gyrates for CMU students, faculty
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05029/449768.stm
