With Friends Like These, Who Needs Actual People?
From: WFAA.com - 09/30/05
By: Jim Landers

Japanese companies are investigating the possibilities of robotic companions
for Japan's growing elderly population, concurrent with young people's
declining willingness or ability to care for the aged. Honda and Toyota, for
example, are developing a humanoid robot that can walk, talk, answer
questions, play music, or use the Internet. Honda's Yuji Hatano says a
humanoid, bipedal form, as opposed to a wheeled or multi-limbed form, is
easier to for people to accept. Honda has spent two decades developing Asimo,
a robot that can walk, run, climb steps, dance, and navigate via sensors and
cameras. Sony's Qrio is a small humanoid that can recover from falls, talk in
Japanese, and pitch baseballs. Dallas Personal Robotics Group President Dale
Wheat believes the Japanese labs' emphasis on friendly, humanoid robots is
partly underlined by a national fear of technology reinforced by films such
as "Godzilla" and "The Terminator." "We Americans would design something
based on what it needs to do, but the Japanese have a different perspective,"
Wheat explains. "It's cheaper for them to buy security-guard robots than to
hire security guards because of the population pressures."  

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

Qrio
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/