Chef Robot makes its video debut, nightmares forthcoming
By Donald Melanson 
posted Jun 15th 2009 4:47PM
posted Jun 15th 2009 4:47PM
Sure, a few still photos of the sushi-making Chef Robot now on display at the International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition in Tokyo are all well and good, but there's nothing quite like a high def video to really bring all that creepiness home, and one has now surfaced courtesy of the brave folks at DigInfo. In case you missed it, the robot itself is actually just a standard issue FANUC M-430iA robot arm with a way too realistic hand attached to it, which apparently not only helps it prepare sushi, but some tasty desserts as well. Head on past the break for the must-see video, you've nothing to lose but your ability to unsee it.
amazing, just looks like my hand
I was just about to say, thats one creepy robot hand
It has a scary ring to it when they say it'll be able to replace more humans on workfloors. I'm glad my job probably can't be done by robots, but still, it would suck if a lot of people lost their job because a robot could do the work.
i' m sure alot of prostitutes lost their job to blow up dolls.
well, no job is safer than mine, robotic engineer.
absolutely inevitable if it's cheaper to employ than a human, I think the more jobs that get replaced, the more downward pressure on human population numbers.
I think in terms of technology, in replacing limbs this hand would be amazing, there are already a lot of jumps in technology in that department, this would add an extra bit of realness to someone using a CLAW or something. To be able to do complicated things would be so astonishing for those with lost arms.
You would not have to worry about that. Atleast here in my city we are facing problem with labour. The labourers who clean your houses, save money, educate their kid and try to make them doctors and engineers. The least they end up in marketing and as tech support or call center executives.
Even the mexicans who work as maids send their kids to a college.
Infact this was the main reason why the rich wanted the poor to remain poor.
Who will wash their asses if the poor got rich?
Well now thanks to robotics atleast the rich will not try to keep the poor, poor.
Steam machines got the same criticism from workers in the early 1800s and look how well it all turned out.
This is a real potential problem for Japan - their birthrate is low and they don't like outsiders, so their population is in decline. Eventually they'll require more automation just to continue an upward trend in productivity.
Either that or they'll have to start letting in more dirty foreigners.
I, For One, Bow and Welcome Our Overlords..
How...original.
He did add bow. That's somewhat original...
No wonder you confused, lowly pheasants.. you have not been touched by The Mighty Hand of our Overlords!
pheasants?
I cry fowl grammar.
@sacapuntas
*Rim Shot*
I see sushi moving...no sushi making...
Not only is it just moving sushi around, it doesn't look like real sushi. It looks like the plastic fascimile stuff you see on display.
Exactly my thoughts - I was expecting it to wield a knife at least.
You guys are missing the point... that thing didn't wash its hands before touching the sushi.
Sometimes I wonder if Engadget's writers even bother to watch the videos they post.
So, in the near future, I can replace some of my sushi chefs at my restaurant...
Ginsu style cost cutting...
that looks a bit too realistic to be a fake hand...you can even see faint purple veins on it!
Replace that hand with a more feminine one, paint its nails, and those things will sell like pankakes ....
not to mention that "sushi making" will be the last things on the buyers mind
Oh the balls crushing malfunctions!
You're right. That hand is WAY too realistic.
might of been a hand chopped off by mafias.
Look at that pinky twist. Definitely gay.
I need one of these for my car.
i need one of these in my shower
I am so hungry now.
God damn people with avatar's like yours should really have their posting privileges restricted to day light hours.
engadget apparently in no hurry to use a bit more imagination in a robot related story than the usual "oh muh god robot takeover let's welcome skynet overlordz & nightmarez aren't we funny". let's all slap our knees about the chicken crossing the road.
Would sir like his food prepared by a robot or a person?
"The hand, which has a silicon skin just like a person's" - ummm, lemme check something real quick. Nope. No silicon on my hand.
Damn, I wish you hadn't said that.
As long as nobody said anything, we were going to let it go.
As one of the few natural humans remaining you were something of a curiosity, but not one we liked to talk about.
Having called attention to yourself, we will of course, have to respond.
Please wait at your location, an unmarked processing vehicle has been dispatched.
We apologize for the discomfort you are about to experience.
My family could use a robot like this for following up on legitimate business transactions with difficult customers.
I dont like how engadget/gizmodo/other gadget blogs say "Robot doom is among us" or other crazy stuff, Even AOTS has its own segment, WTF!!!
You guys are brainwashed from watching I,Robot, Terminator and other movies based on robot apocalypse.
You guys should be saying awsome, because it is a gadget. It has to do with electronics
But you see it as the destruction of earth is going to happen because its this close to being humanized.
Someone broke their humerus.
hm.... i can see some blind guy proposing to his girlfriend but putting the ring on the mechanical hand......
Why does the girlfriend have a mechanical hand?
Is the guy at 1:15 real ?
I think they underestimate how cheap and disposable people are compared to robots...
Yes, but disposing of a person requires paperwork, disposing a robot just requires a wheelbarrow.
It depends who you pay to do it...
Can that hand play crisis?
Engadget's popularity is increasing amongst infants I see.
stuff like music, cooking and art should be off limits to robots..just cause you can don't mean you should
I think I saw it bleed
Would Mr. Ballmer like a "shocker" for dessert?
I smell another Addams Family sequel in the works...
I have silicone skin?
they need to hurry up and produce robots that look like and function like people, I need to buy some friends, humans suck
How long before we cut off that hand and replace it with a chainsaw?
So how long until these are adapted for male/female pleasure devices? I'll take 3!
First pump toothpaste, then battery-powered suckers/lollipops for kids too lazy to lick their own, now this. Gawd, bring on the Apocalypse!!
reminds me of terminator
so... in the future we could just use these hands to kidnap people, and steal things? im thinking they'd leave no fingerprints, unlike us - at least im pretty sure im not made of silicon... and they were making an artificial hand - they couldn't have made some better fingernails while they were at it?
Just want the earbuds, but will take the Zune too!
Chef? I don't see a chef, a chef prepares the food, this thing is just transporting it. Robot waitress mayybe
Why worry,!?! When out sourcing to county's that allow slave labor makes even a robot work force look too expensive .
That will be 'handy' in the kitchen! (rim-shot)
That will be 'handy' in the kitchen! (rim-shot)