Robotics

Japan Successfully Lands Robot Rovers on an Asteroid’s Surface

Chandler Thornton and Euan McKirdy report: The Japanese space agency JAXA said it made history Saturday by successfully landing two unmanned rovers on an asteroid. “The two rovers are in good condition and are transmitting images and [...]

Where Robots and Ninja Collide: Shinjuku Offers Amusements to Foreign Visitors at Night

Yuka Matsumoto reports: Tokyo is bustling with a tide of foreign tourists. According to a Tokyo metropolitan government survey, the most popular destination by far is Shinjuku. I visited the area with Yukiko Konosu, a translator who is knowledgeable [...]

Ghibli Museum Director Resolved to Protect Miyazaki’s Vision

The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, will mark its 17th anniversary in October this year. Opened in 2001 in the west garden of Inokashira Park in the city, it now welcomes about 700,000 visitors from Japan and abroad annually. In a recent interview [...]

What Regular Joes Think about the One-Armed Robot Baristas Invading San Francisco

https://blackshipcoffee.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/cafexcoffeebar2.mp4 Speedy caffeine delivery is Café X’s X factor, and the coffee’s decent, too. Rachel Metz writes: Robots may be coming for our jobs, but even in a tech-centric city like [...]

[VIDEO] Japan Gets First Robotised Coffee House

Japan’s first Robot-Café opened its doors to media on Tuesday, (January 30), with a robot replacing the barista to serve coffee to patrons. Customers at “Henn-na Café,” meaning “Strange Café” in Japanese, have to [...]

Thinking About How Us Meatbots actually Work Could Deliver AI That’s More Useful and Fair

Here are the secrets to useful AI, according to designers. Secrets to good AI: Designers at Google spent three years helping build AI for the firm’s Clips wearable camera, and they published a blog post about what they learned. They say the best [...]

Year of the Dog: Sony Unleashes ‘Intelligent’ Robot Pet

As Japan celebrates the year of the dog, electronics giant Sony on Thursday unleashed its new robot canine companion, packed with artificial intelligence and internet connectivity. The sleek ivory-white puppy-sized “aibo” robot shook its [...]

Restrepo-Schild and her team developed a two-layered artificial retina they say works much like the real thing (Credit: peshkova/Depositphotos)

AI Can Be Made Legally Accountable for Its Decisions

Computer scientists, cognitive scientists, and legal scholars say AI systems should be able to explain their decisions without revealing all their secrets. By Emerging Technology from the arXiv Artificial intelligence is set to play a significantly [...]

Robots Aren’t as Smart as You Think

As robots get good at mimicking human behavior, people can be deceived into thinking they have human intelligence. So let’s put them to the test. Angelica Lim writes: A few years ago I met a robot in a Japanese-style café in Osaka. She wore a [...]

[VIDEO] Yahama’s Robo-Motorcyclist Tears Around a Racetrack at 124 MPH

And it’s totally mesmerizing to watch in action. The video above shows the company’s Motobot—literally, a robotic motorcyclist that sits atop a standard Yamaha and controls and balances the bike—as it charges around a racetrack and tries to [...]

Insurers Using Drones to Assess Damage

The nonlife insurance industry in Japan is increasingly using small unmanned drones to assess damage suffered in disasters in an effort to enable speedier postdisaster payouts. Major nonlife insurance company Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc. [...]

ANOTHER REASON TO QUESTION AUTHORITY: Sex Doll Sharing Service Shut Down by Chinese Authorities

Would you pay to share a love doll with strangers? Oona McGee reports: These days, you can rent just about anything: whether you need a bicycle for a couple of hours to run errands or a middle-aged man to hang out with for the day, there’s a [...]

AI Enlisted to Help Prevent Traffic Jams

The transport ministry will this autumn start a pilot project that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to alleviate traffic congestion in tourist hotspots. The project will use traffic volume data collected through a network of cameras installed on [...]

Chinese Artificial Intelligence Gets Shut Down for Slamming the Communist Party

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[VIDEO] SpaceX Has a Roomba-like Robot But No One Knows What It Really Is

SpaceX fans are extremely curious about a new robot that keeps appearing on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You.” Some are calling it the “Roomba” robot while others insist it should be called “Optimus [...]

Meet the Futuristic Sex Robot Developers Claim is a Coconut-Smashing ‘Game-Changer’

A sex doll company are making a Terminator-style robot head who can speak, smile and even sing – but only in Chinese. Megan White reports: Manufacturers have finished the prototype of the DS Doll Robotic Head, which contains a movable [...]

5G Set to Revolutionize Tech Industry

Yukiho Takaichi and Ayuhiko Sasaki report: With an aim to start services by 2020 — when the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will be held — development of a new communication method called the fifth-generation mobile communication technology (5G) [...]

[VIDEO] Silicone Sally: Japanese Men Find True Love with Sex Dolls

TOKYO: When the spark went out of Masayuki Ozaki’s marriage, he found an unusual outlet to plug the romantic void – a silicone sex doll he swears is the love of his life. The life-size dummy, called Mayu, shares his bed under the same [...]

[VIDEO] Las Vegas Strip Bar Now Featuring Robotic Bartenders

Mick Akers writes: Two robots walk into a bar. Well, OK, maybe they don’t walk, but they can pour you a perfect drink. Tipsy Robot, a 2,500-square-foot bar to open Friday at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, boasts two robotic [...]

[VIDEO] Toys With Digital Eyes: Eerie or Endearing?

With the help of small LCD screens, digitally animated eyes are giving once-stoic toys—from race cars to Cabbage Patch Kids—a highly expressive makeover. Michael Hsu writes: In humankind’s seemingly never-ending quest to give life to toys, [...]

How to Design and Build Your Own Robot

Simplified interactive design tool will let you select 3D-printed parts and off-the-shelf components. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Robotics Institute researchers have developed a simplified interactive design tool that lets you design and make [...]

[VIDEO] The Robot Will See You Now: AI and Your Health Care

Caring Cyborgs: Robots may be good at following instructions, but could they also be our companions and caregivers? Feng Zengkun writes: Head to Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and you might be able to spot Nadine, a cyberhuman [...]

[VIDEO] German ‘Robot Priest’ Helps Mark Reformation Anniversary

A robot named BlessU-2 has been installed as part of an exhibition in Germany to mark 500 years since Martin Luther wrote Ninety-five Theses, a list of propostions for academic debate that started the Protestant Reformation in Europe. BlessU-2 can [...]