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Aibo

Humanoid robot Nao wants to be friends

Aldebaran Robotics is showcasing the skills of its pint-size humanoid robot Nao ahead of its planned mass market release in about a year.

Nao is definitely one of the coolest humanoids around that stands a chance of making it into households as a real product. Aldebaran envisions it as "an autonomous family companion."

Fully programmable, the 23-inch bot boasts 25 degrees of freedom, affording it an impressive range of motion. Check it out in Nao's new promo vid after the jump.

Nao can grasp objects with its prehensile hands; process image and sound data; and navigate its environment using its sonars. Multimedia features include high-fi speakers, microphones, and CMOS digital cameras.

The biped runs on an x86 AMD Geocode 500 MHz CPU, 256MB SDRAM, 2GB flash memory, and lithium polymer batteries that last about 90 minutes per charge.

With striking similarities to Sony's discontinued Qrio humanoid, you'd think Nao was made in Japan. Pas du tout. Aldebaran is based in Paris, though Nao can only speak English. … Read more

The battle of robot standards

Robots don't always see eye to eye. Sometimes they don't even use the same techniques for viewing.

Companies are taking different approaches to computer vision systems, one of trickiest problems in robotics, according to a whirlwind round of interviews at the RoboDevelopment Conference taking place in San Jose, Calif. But it's only one of several forks in the road for robot developers. The "humanoid or not" debate continues to rage, and companies still question whether the strongest market for robots will be with consumers or industrial customers.

First, the visual debate. In computer vision systems, … Read more

No life support for the Aibo

Poor Aibo. Derided since its birth in 1999 as too expensive, which it was ($2,000), the robotic pup was put to sleep rather unceremoniously six years later.

Now we hear that Sony won't even release a driver or develop any other software compatible with Windows Vista for the pooch, according to Akihabara News. Talk about adding insult to injury.