I, Robot

Release Date: July 16, 2004

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Director: Alex Proyas

Screenwriter: Jeff Vintar, Hillary Seitz, Akiva Goldsman

Starring: Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Chi McBride, Alan Tudyk, Aaron Douglas

Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller

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Plot Summary: Based on the classic story collection by famed science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, “I, Robot” will concentrate on Detective Del Spooner, who, with the aid of psychologist, Dr. Susan Calvin, will investigate the death of Dr. Miles Hogenmiller, a brilliant scientist who worked at US Robotics. Initially labeled a suicide, Spooner has other ideas, convinced that a robot may have taken the doctor’s life. Isolated and eccentric, Dr. Hogenmiller appears as a hologram of himself, summoning Spooner to his side after his death. He was working on a very special project when his life was cut short. He had created something quite extraordinary – a robot with a living brain, code named “Sonny.” Spooner goes to Hogenmiller’s boss, Dr. Lance Robertson, with his suspicions. Incensed that Spooner wants to charge one of his robots with murder, Dr. Robertson maintains Dr. Hogenmiller took his own life. Terribly weary, Robertson knows full well that the future of his company would be snuffed out should the press get wind of the idea that a robot would, under any circumstances, kill a human being.

Japanese scientists invent dancing robot

Japanese scientists have developed a dancing robot that can follow a human dancer’s lead.

Professor Kazuhiro Kosuge, leader of the Tohoku University team that developed the robot, says future versions will be able to move in sync with humans.

The MS DanceR (Mobile Smart Dance Robot) predicts the dancer’s next move through hand pressure applied to its arms and back.

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Robot shark gives aquarium a buzz

The robot shark is operated by remote control

The world’s only robotic swimming shark is moving into an aquarium in Devon, along with four live sharks.

The two metre (6 ft 6 in) long creature, called Roboshark2, will spend up to three years alongside sand tiger sharks at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth.

Modelled on the Pacific Grey reef shark, the robot swims using a combination of sensors and thrusters.

Aquarium staff will monitor the sharks’ reaction to their robotic companion to learn more about their behaviour and intelligence.

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Wired News: The New Pet Craze: Robovacs

Just as owners of robot pets like Sony’s Aibo develop emotional attachments to their mechanical companions, people are acquiring similar feelings for their robot vacuum cleaners.

The two leading robovac manufacturers — iRobot and Electrolux — report that owners treat their robovacs somewhat like pets.

More than half the owners of iRobot’s Roomba name their device, claims the Burlington, Massachussetts, company. Owners often talk to their machines, and many treat them as though they were alive, or semi-sentient, anyway. Some even take them on holiday, unwilling to leave them at home alone.

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CBC News: Prototype robots on display in Halifax

HALIFAX – Researchers at a Canadian conference on artificial intelligence showed off a moody robot on Monday that is able to learn simple tasks and interact with humans.

ERIC has an animated “face” that looks upset when a bright light on him, but he quickly recovers. The robot’s two-cameras act like eyes and it has specialized hardware for speech.

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IHT Article Print Page ‘Sociable’ robots react to the surrounding world

NYT

Cynthia Breazeal of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is famous for her robots, not just because they are programmed to perform specific tasks, but because they seem to have emotional as well as physical reactions to the world around them. They are “embodied,” she says, even “sociable” robots. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York is exhibiting a “cyberfloral installation” by Breazeal, which features robotic flowers that sway when a human hand is near and glow in bright colors. Breazeal wrote “Designing Sociable Robots,” released this year by MIT Press. Claudia Dreifus spoke with her for The New York Times.

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RobotsLife.com – Tadahiro Kawada

[old but interesting interview] Tadahiro KAWADA, Director, Kawada Industries – Aircraft and Mechanical Systems Division

Kawada Industries is the company that built the HRP-2P (HRP-2-prototype, showed left and below).

This robot, presented for the first time at the end of March 2002, is an anthropomorphic, biped machine. It has been developed for the Humanoid Robotics Project (HRP), sponsored by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), part of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.

Kawada Industries was in charge of the hardware design and fabrication, while two other companies, Yaskawa Electric Corp. and Shimizu Corp., were responsible of the other aspects of the project.

HRP-2P is taller (1,54 m) but lighter (58 kg) than Honda’s Asimo. It has 30 degrees of freedom and will be used for experiments later this year including “walking on uneven terrains, falling or tipping-over, or getting-up from fallen positions”.

Tadahiro Kawada is Director at Kawada Industries’ Aircraft and Mechanical Systems Division, which was in charge of HRP-2P.

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Forward::JOB (US)

ActivMedia Robotics is seeking help in developing robust, practical mobile robot applications. We are seeking hard-working, intelligent applicants in either of the following areas:

ROBOTICS RESEARCHER

World-class PhD roboticist with extensive experience in 3D mapping and outdoor navigation using GPS and other positional sensors as well as range sensors. C++, Linux. Experience with ActivMedia Robots and ARIA is highly desirable.

ROBOT PROGRAMMER

Exceptional programmer with robotics navigation experience. Both a BS in Computer Science and university-level robotics navigation coursework are required for consideration for this position. C++, Linux. Experience with ActivMedia Robots and ARIA is highly desirable.

ActivMedia Robotics provides a challenging, stable work environment with good salary and benefits. (Unfortunately, we can only consider persons with US Citizenship, Green Card or existing US Work Visa.)

Please send qualified resumes to info@activmedia.com.

ActivMedia Robotics, LLC

19 Columbia Drive

Amherst, NH 03031 US

+1 603-881-7960 fax -3818

robots@activmedia.com

http://www.MobileRobots.com

Silicon.com – Robots – the more human the better, study finds

“Sometimes people are afraid of robots,” says researcher. Funny that.

Imitation is not just the best form of flattery – it’s also good interface design. A study shows that talking computers that copy a user’s unique vocal inflections seem easier to use.

The researchers think that a key component of machine likeability is the ability to mirror the ‘music’ – the rhythm and pitch – of a user’s speech.

This finding stemmed from an experiment conducted by Japanese researcher Noriko Suzuki’s team at ATR Media Information Science Laboratories in Kyoto, reported scientific journal New Scientist.

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Robots may yet morph from science fiction to fact

Robots were supposed to make my life easier. George Jetson promised me as much, in so many words, when Astro wasn’t busting me up with a well-timed: “Ruh-roh.”

Even for those who didn’t take their cues from cartoons, there were plenty of serious folks to make us believe that our futures would be simplified by now with household robots that could help with the chores.

So what happened?

That’s the question that made me jump at the opportunity Monday to get a preview of the International Robots & Vision Show, which opens today at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.

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