Toshiba's decade-old automated volleyball bot resurfaces: where's ours?

If this here press releases didn't have a date of February 1997 on it, we'd swear this was some sort new fancy new development. Sure, robots have been playing sports for ages, but seeing this here creature revived begs the question: why don't we all have one or two of these laying around the house by now? The prototype seen in the video linked below can recognize spoken commands, react to incoming spheres, identify actions of nearby humans and spike volleyballs in your grille all day long. In all honesty, Tosh probably converted this into some sort of elderly assistant bot that didn't catch nearly as much press, but we're still holding onto a sliver of hope that this thing is just about ready for commercial release.

Read - Volleyball robot video
Read - Original volleyball robot press release

[Ayman @ Oct 26th 2008 5:24AM]

3 comments

TRON 3.0

it plays HD-DVD

add something like that on the segway and think of all the possibilities old purse snatchers can still be in the game, oh and volleyball too

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 26th 2008 8:41AM]

Fail
Fail
and
Fail

[Ayman @ Oct 26th 2008 3:26PM]

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Thomas A. Edison

[El Taco @ Oct 26th 2008 3:37PM]

"No, you just failed." Me

[Orpheus @ Oct 26th 2008 6:12AM]

3 comments:
1. Not funny.
2. Not funny.
3 (but technically two comments). Not funny.

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 26th 2008 8:44AM]

Win!

[ferdikom98 @ Oct 26th 2008 6:52AM]

> why don't we all have one or two of these laying around the house by now?

The same reason why Aibos too are not everywhere: they aren't cheap enough yet.

[Alexandre Emond @ Oct 26th 2008 7:46AM]

Yes, cost.
The volleyball robot could cost over 1M$ to buy, install, program and setup. I can take a volleyball community course with a dozen of players for 40$.
Robotics is freaken expensive.

[Ethan @ Oct 26th 2008 7:06AM]

All of these research technologies end up getting used to give them an edge in the car market. Therefore, play volleyball with your car.

[gad get @ Oct 26th 2008 8:03AM]

Despite your comment making no sense, since Toshiba doesn't make cars, I up-ranked you because the visual of someone playing volleyball with a car was just too good.

[Ethan @ Oct 26th 2008 9:43AM]

I think I was thinking of Toyota. If it had been Hitachi, I would probably have gone for Honda.

[gad get @ Oct 26th 2008 8:09AM]

Is it impressive that this 12-year-old robot rivals today's most advanced robots, or is it just depressing that robotics has apparently progressed so little since then? I'm going with the latter.

[Kawaiipikachu @ Oct 26th 2008 8:20AM]

Just look at Asimo, Honda's coolest robot .
I want him to be my friend .

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 26th 2008 8:44AM]

Wow, trot out an old robot and the comments go all to crap.

Quit trying so hard you people.

[NimbRo @ Oct 26th 2008 1:21PM]

See here a video of the RoboCup 2008 Humanoid Soccer Final
Team Osaka vs. NimbRo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMM_XQXJUUc

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 26th 2008 11:48AM]

That's totally a Tron recognizer.

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/ms_tron.htm

[MyHeadisFed @ Oct 26th 2008 2:42PM]

The music was really the best part. And the fact that in Japan, people apparently play "beach ball volley" with hand-held badminton racket heads...

[Patrick @ Oct 26th 2008 3:21PM]

any FIRST kids on here?
if there are, this should totally be next years game. id love to build something like that!

for you non-FIRST people...
http://usfirst.org/
FRC rocks my socks

[treyk4 @ Oct 26th 2008 4:06PM]

Aagh... GIF image...

[treyk4 @ Oct 26th 2008 4:08PM]

No, I take that back. either it's a GIF converted to JPEG or a really low quality JPEG. Either way, fail.
PNG ftw!

[ED @ Oct 26th 2008 6:18PM]

Engadget, you're slipping! This is well over eleven years old!
;-)

[fanthem @ Oct 26th 2008 6:42PM]

Looks as though this robot killed some poor clown and took his nose as a trophy.

[bolezhinkov @ Oct 26th 2008 6:55PM]

no it doesnt.

I dont usually bother with ranking, but I think I had to low rank about 90% of the replies in this thread.

[fanthem @ Oct 26th 2008 7:02PM]

Thanks for telling me how I should interperate the way I see things in life. On that note, how should I take my coffee in the morning? Behold the power or Mr. Vigilante Low Ranker.

[Jake @ Oct 26th 2008 11:35PM]

I lol'd at brought to you by "a lot of people"

-jp

[ipubs bastard child @ Oct 27th 2008 4:49AM]

Even Jonny 5 couldnt play volleyball.. no lasers tho. Ya mamma was a snowblower.