The Keepon dancing robot has already managed to win the hearts of most anyone that's seen it in action, and it looks like it could soon be winning plenty more, as the bot's creators have now formed a company, dubbed BeatBots, with the intent of commercializing it. While they eventually hopes to get the cost down to a reasonable level, they'll apparently first be marketing a $30,000 Keepon Pro model to research institutes studying human-robot interaction -- and anyone else with thirty grand to burn, we suppose. Somewhat curiously, it'll be built with the help of Japan's Kokoro Company, which is better known for its slightly creepy robots like the Actroid than those of the cute and cuddly variety.
Leaps and bounds have been made with Sylvain Calinon's robotic portrait artist since we first caught a glimpse of this amazing AI being -- and no, we're not just referring to the stylish beret and mustache. Now dubbed "Salvador DaBot", the portraitist has developed far more advanced conversation skills, along with a voice that sounds a lot less like Steven Hawking. We kinda miss that feather pen he was sporting before, but his movement's a lot more natural now and his new marker seems to have helped his drawing style -- similar to old-school comic art. See this awesome little guy in action after the break.
Erector's WiFi-enabled Spykee robot hasn't even begun to ship to mere mortals just yet, but through some random acts of wizardry, Sven was able to grab hold of one and give it the ole unboxing / impressions treatment (on video, no less). It could be the novelty factor, but he seemed pretty stoked with the whole package, and the clip waiting in the read link gives some real hard-hitting insight as to whether or not this $300 character deserves a spot in your family. Give it a watch, won't you?
Cognition Technologies' new Semantic Map lets computers -- and, conceivably, evil robots -- "understand" the English language in much the same way humans do, based on word tenses and context in a sentence. With this technology, a computer or search engine can understand virtually every word in the English language -- for a vocabulary about ten times that of a typical American college graduate. The system is already being employed in search engines, allowing people to ask questions in human-phrasing instead of unnatural, machine formatted word strings. Researchers say the ability to understand language is an important building block of the nascent Semantic Web, and will make the Replicants of the future extremely difficult to detect.
The Rovio -- one of WowWee's finest if we should say so ourselves -- is finally ready to roam around domiciles and keep baddies at bay. First announced (and spotted) at CES 2008, this long-awaited robotic sentry is up for pre-order right now, and it comes packing a 640 x 480 webcam to stream back live video in MPEG4 format. Furthermore, it can snap stills, head out on a customized patrol route and avoid obstacles with its infrared sensor. Get ready -- this sheriff's rolling into your town next Friday for $299.95.
Shopping robots aren't totally unheard of from a global perspective, but we certainly haven't seen too many out and about in NY boutiques. Reportedly, that's about to change -- UNIQLO SoHo will soon be home to Mitsubishi's Wakamaru, a humanoid that can look you in the eye, communicate on a very basic level and somehow help you decide between this dress or that other one over there. Word on the street has it arriving sometime next week, so if any of you regulars happen to see it, let us know just how convincing it is / isn't.
France: it's like Canada, only with less hockey, and more boring mechanical spiders. Those hosers have foisted this amazingly-styled and yet utterly dull "La Princesse" piece of street theater on the innocent, unsuspecting people of Liverpool, and the travesty is set to continue for another couple of days. Hit up the read link for BBC's video of the mundanity.
iRobot just announced its new Roomba Pet robotic vacuum cleaners. Boasting the core tech found in the 530 and 560 series of vacuums, the Roomba 532 ($349) and more advanced 562 ($399, includes on-board scheduling) Pet series feature higher capacity sweeper bins; counter-rotating, carpet-digging brushes; and additional accessories to keep those brushes hair and dander free. We hear it's pretty good at herding the kids too. Available now.
We're not even going to front -- we had all but forgotten about Erector's Spykee. Granted, it didn't do itself any favors by showing off at CES and then doing nothing for the next seven months, but we digress. If a pre-order page on Amazon is to be believed, the Spykee Spy Robot should be released on October 15th. It's sporting a hefty $299.99 price tag and a recommended age of 8-years and up, but we'll need to see some actual shipment notifications later this fall before we really get our hopes up. C'mon Erector, don't let us, um, down.
Industrial robots are big, stupid, and dangerous. Walk between an automated welder and the SUV it's assembling and you'll find yourself fused to the frame, destined to sit unwanted at the back corner of some dealer's lot. But, keeping bots and humans separated on an assembly line isn't always practical. Enter ARoS, a machine that's not only capable of working safely with people, but being totally condescending while doing it! In a demonstration video it repeatedly tells its hapless helper how incompetent he is, then, after putting on one lousy nut itself, says "I enjoyed your help!" We figure he says that to all the meat-bags, but you can see and decide for yourself after the break.
Although it hits retail on Thursday, you might want to get your pre-order in now given the way these things tend to go scarce near the Xmas rush. We're talking about Elmo Live of course, the singing, dancing, and story telling robot with wobbly red limbs and interactive sensors scattered around the monster's face and ticklish belly. Available now for about $65 pre-tax at all the usual on-line shops for our tiniest consumers. We've dropped in the video after the break as a reminder of things to come.
Remember Orb Swarm, that merry band of rolling semi-autonomous spheres? Well, they've seen the open-source wizard and came back with a brain. In other words, they've gone autonomous, or mostly so as they are now capable of navigating within a pre-defined GPS course. Besides navigation, these orbs feature an embedded processor, accelerometer and ZigBee wireless communication all of which allow the rolling spheres to "flock , flirt, dance and interact," say their creators. They're set for release en masse onto the Burning Man playa at the end of this month where they're sure to punish chemically-influenced revelers with a sense of panic suitable to the uprising. Check the video after the break for a taste if participating in pagan festivals celebrating experimental living is a bit beyond your sense of sheltered sensibility.
From the same brilliant mind that brought you the RoboStool comes something a bit less useful but equally mesmerizing. Put simply, Norris Labs' Stonehenge is a robotic time teller which rearranges placards in order to express the current time. The concoction utilizes a CrustCrawler Smart Arm and a Parallax Propeller chip along with 14 cards to display the current time, though it does operate, um, a bit slowly. Ah well, it's not like you're in any hurry to see what this thing can do, right? Oh, wait... you are? Head on past the break for a quick look.
Here's your afternoon dose of cuteness, ready or not. David McGoran's Heart Robot has made its way into London's Science Museum, and for good reason. This intelligent robot not only possesses a face with moving eyes and an external heart that blinks depending on what's happening, but it actually encourages people to hug and cuddle it like a real human. Seen as being "among the first robots to signify a new era of emotional machines used for medical treatment and enjoyment," this creature could one day become a mainstay in nursing homes where the elderly could interact with it and hopefully benefit in some metaphysical manner. Check out the read link for a video oozing with adorableness.
Japan's Impress Watch had the good fortune to attend this year's Robo-one tournament with a Casio EX-F1 in hand. The result is vise-to-vise combat captured at 300 frames per second. See a perfectly executed German suplex performed after the break. Makes us almost feel sorry for the little guy... almost.
