The Waseda Talker talking robot
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 13th 2005 10:50AM
posted April 13th 2005 10:50AM
Researchers from the Takanishi Laboratory at Waseda University in Japan have created an anthropomorphic talking robot, the WT-4, capable of producing Japanese vowels that sound more like human speech than previous robots (and from the looks of those lips, like it's up for a little spin-the-bottle). They say they gave the bot a more human-like appearance to make communication with it easier (hence the anthropomorphic part), although we're not sure how talking to a disjointed mouth and nose stuck on a tin man body makes for a more natural conversation.
Ah... yes. One step closer to "I'll Be Back." Terminators, SkyNet and our remains (skulls) being run over beneath the treads of monster killing robots. Cool. keep up the good work guys! (Can't Wait to live in the aftermath rubble! Can you say: NO MORE RENT!)
as for anthropomorphic, it is sometimes easier to understand speech when we can see the lips form the words.
This will freak you out:
http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/nasa-nde/biomimetics/Biomimetic-robot-Hanson.mov
#3 That didn't freak me out....sounds like a robot. Also, her facial expressions were way off. She just looked annoyed even when expressing joy. It's a start though! Sometimes, I think we'd be better served by robots in some places like...at the supermarket....have strategicaly placed robots to ask questions and they could tell you where to get things. That way the employees are freed up for shelf stocking and other things. SOme say you should have the robot do the stocking, but imagine what your store would look like if it was stocked by robots??
#4: Imagine what your store would be like if robots gave all the answers.
You got a purty mouth