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Aibo Gets Competition: NEC's R100 69

Posted by Hemos from the fun-with-technology dept.
gupg writes "NEC has a new personal robot in "incubation"; the FAQ says that it's a prototype developed in their research labs. The web page is really amateurish and the robot doesn't look too aesthetically pleasing, but it seems to be much smarter than the AIBO. Looks like they are trying to add a court jester to your house who will switch TV channels, check email and do small-talk with you. Only problem is that the battery lasts for about 1.5-2 hours and recharging takes 2-3 hours. " Believe me, after sharing an office with Rob's Aibo, there's a lot of ground to cover before we've got digital pets.
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Aibo Gets Competition: NEC's R100 More

Aibo Gets Competition: NEC's R100

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  • Well, if nothing else, this should persuade the Aibo-peeps that they need to keep working to keep up with the competition :)

    Chris.
  • It doesn't look _that_ nice, but it has some nice options i didn't find in the aibo..
    i.e. you can make it do stuff for you, let it change channels and fetch mail and stuff - i think i like it better because it's more of a 'digital servant' kind of thing :)
    Let's hope this is the first step towards a robot that _really_ can do what you tell it to :)
  • Because "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down"

    If you're not going to fund the appearance group, I think the design is elegantly simple.

  • pentagon (Score:1)

    by Zog ( 12506 )
    I take it I won't be allowed to take in the pentagon due to its wander-around and record people features...

  • Real progress will be made... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...when we have pets that'll go to work for us.

    "Fluffy, get the paper. Fluffy, go get another job, I need another Palm XXVII..."

    But seriously, o/t for a sec, has any thought been put into if/how society will work if we ever automate most tasks with robots? What will people do? How will governments provide for everyone? Or will they? I know it's a long way off, but still...

    P

  • R2D2? (Score:2)

    by doomy ( 7461 )
    Does that look like a distant relative of our favorit robot? Maybe after a few revisions R100 might as well become the adam of R2D2.

    Now some interesting things you can do to with R100..

    Train it to recoginze your pets.. dogs and cats.. Rover and Tom (ok forget the cat)

    Now program R100 to control the doggy. Have fixed times for doggy to eat, take a dump, roll over and play dead, play ball and so on.

    Oh R200 comes with weather proof industrial quality tires and is certified as the first robot driver. So it can take your dog for a walk (And scoop up the poop afterwards).

    speculations are endless......
    --
  • The How does it work? [nec.co.jp] page suggests it'll move around on it's own and suggest to do stuff when it gets bored (sort of)

    I can just see my girlfriend coming home and the R100 going: "Hi, how about you and me having some fun together?"

  • dunno (Score:3)

    by unhooked ( 21010 ) on Sunday December 19, 1999 @03:09AM (#1461919)
    It's shaped a little too much like a football,
    I'm afraid I couldn't resist the urge to punt the
    thing the first time it bluescreened.
  • On the battery life issue, I saw a small battery-powered 'robot vacuum cleaner' on the BBC's Tomorrow's World a couple of years ago, which learnt the topology of the room, but most importantly, the location of the power sockets. When it's ''low power'' light came on, it went directly to the power socket and recharged itself. That seemed to me to be the single most important breakthrough in robotics for the last few decades :)

    Now they just need to get it to have a second battery on charge and just swap them when its battery gets low and battery capacity will cease to matter much.
  • Just forgot to add this [nec.co.jp]
    --
  • i noticed that one of the proposed color schemes
    is penguin-like.we who are interested should
    write them and show an interest in this scheme
    being put into production as well as linux versions of the software.
  • Thats exactly what i thought when i saw it. I don't think i'd trust it around small children at all, it doesn't look like something cute like a puppy, and with its dorky shape and colors would encourage kicking.

    The japanese scarecrow-like person that had it change the tv channel in the "what does it do?" section was pretty funny though.
  • No, I'm not going to ask if there will be Linux support.

    This robot is a networked device which is a feature I don't recall the AIBO having. Put this together with X10 devices and you could dominate the world by voice! (Or at least the part you live in.)

    I imagine the penguinish color theme will be my choice if there is . . . enough money in my bank account! (See? I didn't ask about Linux support :)
  • Yeah, I guess they prefer having people who can be bribed or become foreign agents perform those tasks instead...
  • So, AIBO's not the wonderdog, eh? I should have figured.

    Oh, how I remember growing up, being about as close to Mini-Geek as humanly possible, and drooling over...Teddy Ruxpin.

    For those lucky enough to have been spared the technological disappointment I was forced to experience, little Teddy was a bear with a motor in his mouth...and I swear to you, this bear could TALK! Oh, my poor little Coco 2, with its EARS system, had voice synthesis that sounded so machine like(and yet, here I am 15 years later, and things aren't all that much better)...

    But Teddy was almost...human! Wow! And it responded to the lucky kids that got to play with it!

    Of course, Teddy *was* human--just a tape recorder in the back, with the mouth playing the role as VU meter. It wasn't responsive. It had no voice recognition. It was just a dumb bear.

    There's true genius in the small number of AIBOs being built. Put out a million AIBOs, and everyone discovers it's nowhere near as magical as we'd like to think. Put out 2500, and most of us remain deluded by the myth.

    Yours Truly,

    Dan Kaminsky
    DoxPara Research
    http://www.doxpara.com
  • Well, the Dune books actually do discuss the prospect of computers and robots advancing to the point where mankind has to do absolutely nothing. At first it was Utopian, with everyone's needs provided for and maximized leisure time. Then, various power-hungry people used the robots to enslave the practically defenseless masses whose minds and bodies had deteriorated. This leads to the Butlerian Jihad, in which all the "thinking machines" are destroyed. A universal ban is put into place, forbidding the building of a machine in the likeness of the human mind.

    Kind of a dark way of looking at the whole thing, but not entirely unrealistic.

  • I too thought of Dune. Of course, a gratuitous mention of The Matrix also seems to be in order. The Matrix.

    The idea of machines putting people out of work goes back to, at least, Marx. It's always been shown not to be the case. (Consider our current level of technology, our population, and our material wealth compared to that of the past.)

    I think we will soon face the challenge that other civilizations have faced. Are we sufficiently aware of our own devices (mechanical, intellectual, political, et al.) to control our destiny?
  • Too late. It's already happened.
  • This battery life issue is important; unless they can at least reverse those numbers (I.E., 3 hour battery life and 1.5 hour recharge) the product is screwed.

    However, if they can do that, and then make the recharge station into some cute little doggy pillow that RoboFido goes and "curls up in", they will have the killer e-pet.

    I personally would love to have a little daggit that turns the TV to Dragonball Z right before it comes on, then barks at me to tell me to get off the freakin' web and go watch my show. I don't think I'm alone in this.


    NEC, Sony, everybody else, pay attention here:

    They need to look like four-legged critters, but they don't need fur. You could make a generic design that is user-selectable as to whether it barks or meows, and that'll be good enough for folks, but a little biped-appearing humanoid will freak people out. Make it four legs or it won't sell.

    They need to be able to do useful things, which means they need accurate internal clocks, and either infrared or RF data capabilities. If the thing has an IP address and speaks 802.11 you'll sell a jillion of 'em, but that's not stricly necessary for them to sell.

    It's OK if some functions are added if you have a PC for them to talk to, but they better be pretty damn functional without it, and you better make those API's public. Open Source developers will help your sales, and it does *NOT* hurt you if your competition could theoretically make interoperable epets. If you think so, you should get out of the PC business because that's how it works.

    Batteries should last long enough for RoboFido to make it around town on the family shopping trip, and RoboFido should go and lie down in his recharge station looking cute from time to time to recharge all on his own. He should never die on me without warning.

    RoboFido does not need to understand English, but he does need to learn my voice and distinguish me from other humans.

  • Robotic Human Project (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    There is this big rush to get a 'robotic human' out in Japan. The Japaneese government is encouraging companies to produce personal, robotic helpers that could almost be considered human. This is just the start of things.

    TV told me, so it must be true.
  • With a bit of black paint and some very minor modifications, that thing could REALLY look like a little penguin. :>
  • Well, the first thing that strikes would be the "personability" of the thing... and of course as a geek what's the first thing you want to know? how it works, of course.

    the site is rather devoid of real technical data (onboard processor and storage? how does it interface with the "offboard" pc? what sort of stuff does that pc do?)

    really, this looks unfortunately little more than a very expensive teddy ruxpin shaped in a pokemon style. the few technical specifications there are imply it can only recognize 100 phrases (most, if not all of which, i bet, are preprogrammed, such as turn the tv channel, fetch the remote, read me my email etc) in other words, its functionality is predetermined, with little to no capability for expansion (its 300 output phrases must be similarly preprogrammed)

    ah well, so it's going to be eye candy. so at least, is it going to look good? check out:

    http://www.incx.nec.co.jp/robot/english/idea-e/i dea02a.htm

    the shimizu one looks based on the imac, and the ultraman and uri-chan ones are cool. you could always buy a "feature expansion pack" (aka a box of crayons) i suppose :)

    what intrigues me is its reported "data transfer" capability... one would assume the pc does most of the work and simply transmits it to the bot (as in the emails, for instance), however, what really grabbed my attention was it's supposed ability to display video for you - is it going to have some high-speed wireless connection, and a box attached to the scart input on the tv that receives its input? that would rock. but would also explain why its battery life is pitiful.

    in the end, i think, this is pandering towards the "AI" perceptions of the masses, who can still be amazed by a 'echo "who are you?"; read $idiot; echo "hi, " + $idiot;', turning its head to "listen" to people, and so forth. the idea of offloading the computation onto a remote box is brilliant, and should be the way forward, imho, but i think these manufacturers have to get their priorities right.

    to that end, someone has to come up with a cool robot with some proper semantic responses, learning capabilities and usefulness, then show the public it can be done. any takers?

    Fross :)

  • Techno-trousers, ex-NASA. Perfect for walkies!

  • This was on Tomorrow's World (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This was on Tomorrow's World (a long running BBC 1 technology program in the UK) last week. The feature list sounded pretty impressive, it could do things like record a video message for a specific person, and when it later saw that person (optical pattern recognition), it would take them to the TV and replay the message on it. It had a really annoying squeaky voice and kept interrupting people though; I suspect it would get annoying quickly if there wasn't any way to tell it to shut up.
  • These things look really cool, but did you happen to look at the color scheme ideas [nec.co.jp] page? There looks to be some very cool designs, even a penguin! [nec.co.jp] What I wouldnt give to have a kickass penguin wandering around my house aimlessly.
  • The scheme is here. [nec.co.jp] Whooohoooo! Penguin Robots!

  • Oh My God! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    They've Borged Kenny!
  • That calls for a Vibration mode

    Sorry had to...
    -Kris
  • The poster wrote something aobut how amatuerish the web page is and how unpleasant looking the lil' critter is.

    Lay off the drugs or at least start sharing them. This is one of the nicer webpages I've come across in a while. Wonderful use of nicely drawn comic strips, very soft colors which are easy to look at, and simple text. Its seems pointed towards children though with its simplicity, which makes you wonder who the target demographic really is.

    As far as the robot goes, yeah its ugly until someone paints him black and attaches a beak and flippers to it and calls it Tux. Then slashdotters will come a runnin'.

  • Go to thid page:


    Color Scheme ideas [nec.co.jp]

    Take a look at the color scheme:

    Tux if I ever seen him [nec.co.jp]

    looks like Tux to me...

  • Is it just me, is my pattern matching algorithm cranked too high, or does this really look like Kenny from SouthPark?
  • Does anyone else think the version shown on their opening page looks like Kenny from South Park?
  • Here's a hillarious video of the robot's instability on nec's site. Here [nec.co.jp] he's having a schitzo attack..
  • Here's a hillarious video of the robot's instability on nec's site

    Of course, most of us are SOL, as you need a quicktime plug-in to view the video... (not to start a hige flam war against Apple like yesterday in the article about Vendetta)
    -dr

  • I was gonna write a little story about a future where most of your paycheck goes towards an android fund and after a few short years you retire and an android with your name and a DMV-type picture of your face gets your old job.

    You spend the rest of your days living off its salary and loving life, doing all those things you wish you could do but are stuck at work. Oh course this isn't for everyone. Some people stay at their jobs for work they love, while there's people who have little to no interests and are bland boring specimins who deserve to work all day in an office full of robots like themselves.
  • a beowulf of these things! They could take over the world!
  • > They should make it work like R2-D2: when the batteries are low, it just walks over, sticks
    > it's... uh... universal utility device in the wall mounted charging unit, and charges up.

    ...and while doing that his head spins around and white smoke with a smell of burned electronics comes out of him. That would be even cooler!
  • From the section titled "How does it work? [nec.co.jp]" It can tell if you are being gentle or forceful and respond accordingly. I guess it can retaliate. Like something right out of Poltergeist.

    Time flies like an arrow;
  • There is more to TR than just a VU meter... the servos that controlled the mouth and eyes were encoded on different tracks. The stereo audio tape is really a 4 track system. With typical use, this constitutes a left and right channel, and two backwards, left and right channels. But, I will assume that most everyone knows this.

    Put in that NKOTB tape that you still have laying around and Teddy won't do a whole lot. He'll be able to "speak" without moving his lips. A real ventriloquist. Now take your favorite Teddy adventure and put it in your car deck, and the left speaker will tell a wonderful story in Teddy's voice. The right speaker will resemble that of a modem handshake. At the time, Teddy was an excellent combination of technology and magic. My younger brother was captivated by the realistic qualities of that cassette player, while I was most interested on how the cassette could control his antics.

    The Microsoft Actimates [microsoft.com] actually improved on the technology. The TV Pack module and the PC Pack module control the Actimate through RF. With sensors built into the eyes and hands, they could respond to differences in light and touch. The true genius is in the TV pack. In the overscan region of an Actimate capable TV broadcast, the TV pack can interperate encoded instructions and allow the Actimate to seemingly respond to the TV program. This is still not interactive.

    Last Christmas seasons' fad Furby was a step closer to a truly interactive device. Furby was loaded with sensors, and through IR was able to communicate with other Furbys. This is still not capable of true interaction.

    AIBO and R100 are destined for the same fate. Both seem to be geared to a more mature audience, and will therefore not have the impact that Teddy had over a 7 year old. Until these robotic pets have the ability to think for themselves, adapt to different situations and environments, and learn, then they will be no differnt.

    I completely agree with Dan's last remark. The genius of AIBO is not in AIBO itself. Although quite a remarkable design, it is still nothing more than a script interperater. Wet the public's curiosity with AIBO by releasing only a small number, and the suddenly you are feeding back into the mystique that captivates your inner child. But you'll want it because you won't want to share your toys.

    Time flies like an arrow;
  • I agree, somebody needs to get four of them and teach them to swear. Realtime South Park. P.S. Would somebody moderate up the "they borged Kenny comment" it does not deserve a -1.
  • My ferrets bluescreen once and awhile... probably because of low memory warnings. :)
    Which brings up an interesting point- namely, real pets can be incredible pains in the neck, but you still love them. My ferrets spend every waking hour looking for things to knock over, chew on, sleep in, and most importantly- stealing all my socks and hinding them under my dresser. And I love em for it regardless, though I groan every time they do something stupid (which is constantly).
    But would consumers put up with such behavior from a purchased robotic pet? And if they wouldn't, what kind of relationship would people have with a robot that never did anything bad or rascally, like a real pet would? Is this a robotic double standard?
  • I think NEC's really onto something here. I mean, sure the AIBO was a big step, but it wasn't as "in touch" with the person as this R100 seems. I think the design is brilliant, a great stoke of marketing genius ^_^

    But I also think (man I'm thinking a lot today ^_^) that it will need to be destroyed, if these things become too commonplace.
    -They'll do everything for you. We'll all start to become lazy, constantly relying on this thing to clean our rooms, check our e-mails, even possibly walk the dog...as it is American's are saddeningly overweight (the majority), this wouldn't help matters much, just make them worse.
    -Their AI personalities sound extremely nauseating! Always so chipper, so friendly, so welcoming and so eager to please...after about a few hours of ownership I'd probably scream for mercy and punt it into the street. It could probably be programed to be different, but as things stand it doesn't sound that way...ahh! Reminds me of the AI computer in the Heart of Gold, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ^_^

    And if my memory serves me, Teddy Ruxpin scared the crap out of me ^_^ One stuffed bear, having that much power and human characteristics...eek. The R100 is nothing like that.
    But rather, a penguin waddling around the house...that sounds cute ^_^

    miyax
  • Get R100 as well. Nice stuffs that would happen:

    1. They'll duke it out
    2. They'll recognize each other and become friends
    3. They'll do #2 and then conspire against you

    The possibilities are endless...use your imagination here...
  • I got to borrow a HERO robot(the scaled down model without the cool arm), and the most it did with my experiences is walk around a bit, get stuck and yell "help!" until I turned it around.

    That thing was boxy, and not very pleasing. This R100 looks like a cybernetic weeble.
  • the designers of the Aibo and the R100 are anything like me they'd program in special commands that would make the robot do silly stuff like kill the neighbors or spit acid. Who would want a non-lethal robot? They have the sensors, all they need now are the weaponry.
  • ... While your at it? -Darren
  • Would it not be cool to add the new features from the R100 to the AiBO? (Sorry but i think the AiBO is cuter and i don't want no pesky 'bot telling me i have been K-lined for flooding)
  • because this is a geek website. geek. get it?
  • with a built in EMP gun?
  • maybe they would have sex? sex is the thing missing from all of these robots. i wonder why? it is SO obvious.
  • "Their AI personalities sound extremely nauseating! Always so chipper, so friendly, so welcoming and so eager to please...

    That's where the Japanese and Americans/British differ - Japanese love cuteness. I've spent a while reading up on Japanese culture, and I guess its rubbed off - these things are damn cute! I'd love to have one.

    -lx
  • I have to say, the Japanese have us beat when it comes to frivolous technology. I would give it another 2-3 years(same timespan I'll give for palmtop technology) before I'll buy something like that, but I think they would be great to have. Problem is, I have carpet - can they deal with that? Or are they going to wake me up in the middle of the night.....(bo bo bee bo ba...aaaaah! Mama-mama-mama! Okirikunakatta!)?

    -lx
  • Three things about the R100 implimentation that I found provocotive... 1.) It is basically an untethered computer peripheral device. It is a self propelled enclosure that contains input sensors (video, sound, temperature), output devices (motors, speaker, lights), and a wireless network interface. It can be manufactured relatively inexpensively. 2.) It is a networked device. It's AI intelligence resides not in the robot, but rather on a stationary PC, and ultimately on the whole Internet. The R-100 is merely a puppet. The beauty of this is that the AI can grow with all the synergism provided by the Internet. As PC's and software develop, the AI will improve exponentially. Data from the robot's simple sensors can be processed in real time by multiple programs from different companies on multiple computers spread around the planet. The output from these programs will allow a simple puppet to be transformed into an apparently complex sentient being. 3.) The AI will eventually turn into 'The Matrix', and Keannau Reeves will save us.
  • Why don't you all go get laid or something, you need a new experience

    I will, but my hand fell asleep.

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