GENERAL :: ZDnet :: Robots: Our helpers or replacements?
Robots: Our helpers or replacements?


Just one word: robots. That's the next big boom being buzzed about by the world's leading technology visionaries.

"In the last millennium, we came to rely on machines. In the new millennium, we will become our machines," Rodney Brooks, director at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Fujitsu professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said at the Association of Computing and Machinery's Beyond Cyberspace conference in San Jose last month.

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Scientists and engineers in laboratories across Europe, Japan and the US are building so-called "robo sapiens" that can navigate the corridors of today's office buildings and perform the tasks of an office assistant.

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Throughout Japan, service robots are functioning as guards in warehouses, delivering trays of food in hospitals and carrying documents from one office to another. Honda Motor is investing heavily in practical humanoid robots that operate household switches, turn doorknobs and perform tasks at tables.

The Japan Robot Association estimates that by next year, some 11,000 service robots will be deployed, with 65 percent of them in hospitals and nursing homes. The association also projects that by 2005, health-care robots will be a US$250 million market, with a possibility of growing to a US$1 billion market by 2010.

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GENERAL :: TIME.com: TIME Magazine -- How 'Bout Them Bots?

How 'Bout Them Bots?

BY ANITA HAMILTON

They've trolled antarctica for meteorites. they've scoured the Titanic for sunken treasure. They've built cars and computers and helped perform open-heart surgery. Now robots are homing in on the final frontier: your living room. Long the stuff of Star Wars fantasies and little-boy dreams, robots for real folks are here at last.

At the annual Toy Fair in New York City last week, the bots were everywhere. Foot-long bug bots crept across exhibit floors. Two-legged baby bots took their first toddler steps. A testy and surprisingly lifelike dinobot snapped its mechanical jaws.

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KAIST :: AMI :: Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English About Korea
KAIST Develops Humanoid Robot

As a new generation of robots is being born for use at home and office, Korea is banking on the robot revolution and in its latest attempt to make a name for itself in the fast-growing market a local research team has succeeded in developing a robot that can think. The humanoid robot, AMI short for Artificial-Intelligence Multimedia Innovation can sweep the floor, pick up a ball and perform simple tasks. It is the first locally-developed interactive robot that can think, move and respond to orders.

The two-year old brainchild of a research team led by Professor Yang Hyun-Seung of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is designed for household use. The robot is capable of moving through furnished rooms, tackling the stairs and avoiding obstacles using its sensor system. AMI also has a voice recognition feature and is able to talk and respond to human voices.

A liquid crystal display screen embedded on its chest displays internal operation levels and can even project facial expressions to show human emotions. AMI's makers say consumers won't see the robot out on the market anytime soon as the KAIST team will continue working to upgrade AMI's functions.

GENERAL :: Wired :: Robot Sites a Web of Deception
By Robin Clewley
2:00 a.m. May. 1, 2001 PDT
Since its earliest days the Web has been a feeding ground for the bizarre and the fetishistic -- with communities devoted to extraterrestrials, Charles Manson and bestiality. Seasoned Web surfers aren't surprised by much they encounter.

But stumbling upon a series of recent websites devoted to robotic emancipation can make anyone do a double take. And to make it even more out there, these websites record events that take place in the year 2142.

Nearly 40 websites are devoted to a robotic revolution or the related murder of a man named Evan Chan. But the sites aren't linked to a cult or militia group.

They're part of one of the most complex viral movie marketing campaigns ever created.

"If you read all the Web pages (more than 700 so far), it's so much more intelligent, in terms of written style, and the research is far more intensive, than anything I've ever seen," said Harry Knowles, head of Ain't it Cool News, the movie-insider website. "Everything has been calculated so well to throw people like me off."
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