JJNN: NEDO

Welcome again to JJNN for February 16th, 2009. Today we will be talking about robots.

I watched a lot of TV as a child. When I was very young my family didn't have cable TV so I was forced to watch the free TV stations. My favorite TV channel was PBS. I spent hours watching such shows as Discovery and NOVA. Every so often one of those TV programs would do a show on robots. They would say how great robots were and how great they would become. I lost track of the times that I hard that all homes in America would have robots in them by 2010. Well, it's early in 2009, but I can't see a golden age of robot help in the home around any corner. Where is my robot!? I want my robot, damn it!

Well that is where this news article and NEDO steps in. What's NEDO, you may ask. Well NEDO stands for New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. Technically I guess it should be NEITDO, but that is not as easy to say. NEDO is an organization that started way back in 1980 because of the oil crisis . Back than it was all about finding an energy source to replace oil. They started to look into industrial technology in 1988. Ever since 2006 they have been holding their robotics contest. The contest for this year is geared towards robots that could be mass produced for 2015 (only 5 years after the 2010 prediction from NOVA)

The NEDO robotics contest hard 3 distinct categories: advancements in the field of industrial robotics, advancements in the field of robots used in medical facilities, and advancements in field of robots used in emergencies. Though there were 18 robots in the running in the three categories, only 6 ended up getting any prize.

There were also demonstrations at the contest. The first robotic demonstration was a robot that goes around a hospital and passes out medicine and other such things. Personally I don't think this would fly in America because that robot would probably be pried open within an hour of it starting to operate. A defenseless robot with narcotics inside of it... not going to work.

The second robot is a rescue robot. It weighs about 20 Kg (about 44 pounds) and can be used to go into places that are too dangerous or tight for humans to enter. The robot sports a fisheye lens camera and infrared camera. A special software uses the information from the cameras to make a 3D map of the area. That is all nice, but in the end this is basically a really mobile radio controlled car that has cameras strapped to it. You can see a picture of the hospital robot (the upper picture) and the rescue robot (the lower picture) below.

JJNN Friday: Technology - 09

Welcome again to JJNN for Friday September 26th, 2008. Today we will be talking about a new Japanese robot.

There are a lot of robots made in Japan. There are robots that do everything from putting cars together to dancing traditional dances. Sure, the ones that put the cars together actually do something that is useful, but even the ones that do things like dance teach the engineers that make the robots a lot about how to make new types of robots. Even the most useless robot can end up being useful.

The newest of the robots that does not really seem useful is called Seiko-chan. This robot can do something I could never do, it can ride a unicycle. I never really wished I could ride a unicycle, but now I don't want to loose to a robot. Maybe I should learn. You can see this new robot in the video below.



Like it says in the video, the robot has advanced sensors and a balance system. It is by trying to advance those sensors and systems as well as making the robot better in general that the robot industry in Japan jumps forward compared to the robot industry in other countries.

Seiko-chan is suppose to be the cousin of an earlier robot invention named Seisaku-kun. This robot rides around on a bike. Like Seiko-chan he keeps balanced and moves according to advanced sensors. You can see what he can do down below.



I don't think I could get up a slope that steep on my bike.

Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 一輪車(いちりんしゃ). It is pronounced ichirinsha and means unicycle. To become an elementary school teacher in Japan you have to know how to ride a unicycle. It is on the test to become a teacher.

That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.

JJNN 24 June 15th, 2008

Welcome again to JJNN for Sunday June 15th, 2008. Today we are going to talk about another of the many wacky robots that Japanese companies make.

This story was taken from slashdot and can be found here. The name of the new robot is EMA (which stands for Eternal Maiden Actualization...what ever that means) and is being made by Saga Toys, of all companies. Saga actually has a line of robots it has produced over the years including a dog robot and a cat robot. They decided the next major step would be to make a humanoid female robot. The robot is pictured below:



The robot is slated to go on sale September 26th and will be able to do the following things: trade name cards, sing and dance at the same time (I can't even do that), walk like a female should (AKA Fujiko from Lupin) and kiss.

Yep, you read that right, kiss. This robot has a "kiss mode," which is actually just a part of its "entertainment mode." When Ema points its (I will not use a feminine pronoun for it!) the owner can pull her left arm forward and the robot will move its face closer to the owners face and made a kiss sound. What the hell? Why would anyone want to do this? For one thing, EMA is only 38 centimeters (about 15 inches) tall. I guess if someone would like to have a love affair with a leprechaun this would be perfect, but I prefer someone a might taller myself.

Yeah, I know, the kissing thing is weird, but lets look at the robot in terms of parts. It may be a little thing, but it actually has an array of 5 motors that it is uses to walk and perform other actions such as moving its arms. Since this thing can walk you don't want it to be running into anything or anyone so it also has lots of sensors. These sensors include infrared sensors, sensors that detect how the robot is angled compared to a target and sensors that detect sound. Also, this little robot is flexible. It can flex at the elbows, shoulders, legs and the trunk of the body. That is a total of 9 places that it has degrees of movement. To top it all off, EMA's hands both have sensors on them that can tell when you are touching or moving them (so that you can get to kiss mode!).

All and all it is quite the complex machine being sold as a toy to lonely men. The price is about 20000 yen (about 200USD) so it is a might expensive as well. My advice for people that actually want to buy this thing is to either find a girlfriend or find a new hobby. I guess it would be a good introduction to a future where every house has a robot (if that kind of future is meant to be), but may a checkers mode would have been a better idea than a kiss mode for something like this.

Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 赤外線(せきがいせん). It is pronounced sekigaisen and means infrared. It seems that infrared technology is everywhere in Japan. I mean you can trade cellphone information with infrared now. Got to love technology.

That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.