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PALRO robot masters English, will never shut up again (video)
When first we saw Fujisoft's PALRO robot doing its thing we were charmed but, as it didn't speak English, we had to adore it from afar. No longer. The little critter has obviously mastered our language quite quickly and can be seen below chatting with an even more robotic humanoid about such idle things as the weather, career aspirations, and just how great PALRO is. How great is PALRO? PALRO is really great -- but humble. Inside that barrel chest is a full-fledged PC with an Atom Z530 processor, 4GB of flash storage, and an Ubuntu kernel keeping everything in check. It's available as ever for educational and research institutions for about $3,600, but we're trying to get one ourselves. If we can get it to type prepare yourselves for many more posts about software based on real Japanese cutting-edge technology.
PALRO the robot gets upgraded to 2.0, gets improved face & body tracking, is as cute as ever (video)
Oh PALRO, you'd already won our hearts with that dirty dancing routine you learned over the summer, and heaven knows you're cute as a button. Now, though, you have the brains to match those looks. Fujisoft has upgraded PALRO's software to version 2.0, which comes with some impressive face, body, and object tracking. The little guy can now identify a face and track it even if someone turns their head, and likewise can identify a person's body at a distance while walking through a crowded room. With a quick scan of its dome-shaped head PALRO can locate all the objects in a room and, when told to walk to one, will start swinging its arms and strut right to it, dodging wayward keyboards and mice along the way. It's as impressive as it is adorable, and while PALRO still isn't available for sale to the world at large, a price of roughly $3,300 makes means he's well out of our league anyway.
PALRO buddies with its first apps, busts new moves on video
Well, that didn't take long. Just a few months after Fujisoft's PALRO was formally introduced to the Japanese education segment, said humanoid is now set to receive a host of new applications as well as become useful as a people tracker. It's bruited that PALRO will soon gain a Twitter client (to read tweets aloud as best it can), a cooking app, a Japanese word game and remote monitoring abilities (among others), but it's unclear how these obviously commercial apps will help / not help the robot inch closer to a citizen's release. In related news, PALRO has been spotted with a few newfound abilities, namely the instinct to track people and objects via its built-in camera. We'll spare you the rhetoric on why teaching these things to watch our every move is a tragic, tragic mistake, but feel free to peek the video after the break if you're brushing the inevitable downfall of mankind off as a silly rumor.
Fujisoft's PALRO humanoid robot in the running to be our new best bud
Fujisoft's recently taken the wraps off its latest companion bot, and they call this one PALRO. PALRO's 39 centimeters tall (just over a foot), and boasts a 1.6GHz CPU Intel Atom CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 4 GB of flash memory, a 3 MP camera, Wi-Fi, 802.11 b/g/n, and a lithium ion battery to top it all off. He's also equipped with a 3 megapixel webcam, but don't worry -- his specs don't make him unapproachable. As you'll see in the video which is after the break, PALRO's probably the kind of guy that you could spend a lot of time with... but see for yourself. Fujisoft plans to start shipping units in March for 300,000 yen (that's about $3,300 ). Hit up the source link for a lot more video.
