actroid

Tokyo store's female android looking for love

Ah, Valentine's Day. It's just around the corner, so have you thought about how you'll express your love for your favorite inanimate object? Humans are so passe.

Japanese retailers have a suggestion. They're setting geek hearts aflutter with a pretty, ageless female android who's looking for love.

Clutching a bag and cell phone, she seems to be waiting for a suitor.

"Android falls in love? She is waiting for you" reads the writing on her glass box at Takashimaya Department Store in Tokyo's Shinjuku district.

The special Valentine's display features Geminoid F, the photogenic robot developed by Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro and colleagues. … Read more

Are inflatable robots more than just hot air?

The one good thing about inflatable robots is that all you need to disable them is a sharp object. Just remember that if they try to enslave us.

This is Ant-Roach, a pneumatic robot that weighs about 70 pounds and can carry loads that are much heavier. It was designed by San Francisco-based Otherlab "to demonstrate the carrying capacity and high strength-to-weight ratios possible with inflatable structures."

In several videos, Ant-Roach is seen carrying kids on its back while it moves its six legs back and forth in a very slow walk. Watch it stumbling around in the sped-up videos here.

The beast has textile actuators that contract when inflated with compressed air. A microcontroller runs the muscle network, and is controlled wirelessly via laptop. … Read more

Go on, you know you wanna smell this robot armpit

The horror! The horror!

Designer Kevin Grennan really plumbed some kind of cybernetic heart of darkness when he conceived this supremely nasty robot armpit.

Now on display at the Design Interactions Show 2011 at the Royal College of Art in London, this little Sarlacc pit doesn't do much besides sweat and stink.

It releases "Japanese standard artificial sweat," according to Grennan. Would that be Pocari Sweat, the sports drink that comes in a blue can?

Not so, Grennan explained to me: "The armpit currently emits Japanese industrial-recipe artificial sweat, which is used in testing fabrics. This artificial sweat doesn't smell particularly strongly; there is a faint hint of urea though."

Charming. … Read more

Fans surprised to learn Japanese pop idol isn't real

Japanese geekdom was reportedly shocked of late to learn that the newest member of AKB48, an all-girl idol band with a rotating roster of fresh teen faces, isn't human.

According to her official profile, Aimi Eguchi is a 16-year-old from Saitama, north of Tokyo. Her looks might have earned her the prominent spot in confectioner Ezaki Glico's ad for Ice no Mi candy balls (see below)--if only she weren't a computer-generated composite.

Eguchi's appearance caused a stir among fanboys, and she even appeared in Japanese magazine Weekly Playboy. But their excitement soured when Glico confirmed she's fake, according to a Channel News Asia report.

Her face was fashioned from the features of six other band members, as you can see in this video.

I'm not a fan of AKB-47 or its 60-odd human members, and I was astounded to see grown men lining up to see them perform at a theater in Akihabara, Tokyo. Still, I have to give credit to Eguchi's creators for the verisimilitude of their work. … Read more

Kokoro shows off its latest android Actroid F

Geminoid F, the uncannily lifelike fembot we saw in April, is back in a new PR vid from Kokoro, a Tokyo-based entertainment company that collaborates with Osaka University's Hiroshi Ishiguro in the creation of androids both feminine and creepy.

Geminoid F was so named because it's a nearly exact replica of a human female model, seen here. In the new video, the robot calls itself "Actroid F," as it has joined the ranks of other Actroid robots produced by Kokoro.

The air servo-powered fembots can be rented for trade shows and other events. While Actroid F … Read more

RoboThespian a raving, emotional mess

Is your company's marketing department getting enough attention? If not, try going robot. RoboThespian is a robot pitchman that can chew the scenery better than William Shatner, crying like a baby and laughing hysterically a second later.

First created in 2005 by U.K. firm Engineering Arts, RoboThespian is built on an aluminum chassis and powered by compressed air. He can be controlled live or act out programmed skits from "Star Wars," Shakespeare, or just about anything else. I'd love to see him do Captain Kirk.

The latest generation, RT3, has a redesigned torso, pelvis, and … Read more

For sale: Your robot clone

Japanese robot maker Kokoro, best known for its Actroid line of ultra-lifelike androids, will make robot clones of people in a special limited-time offer.

The New Year promotion is being offered via select department stores in Japan. People willing to pay about $225,000 can have themselves recreated in robot form, with their robot clone having exactly the same face, hair, eyes, and body.

Kokoro will also model the buyer's voice, facial expressions, and upper-body movements to create the most lifelike doppelganger possible.

The Actroid and Geminoid androids are powered by a quiet air servo system that moves their … Read more