Category Archives: Uncategorized

Aibo présente la météo

par Sébastien Gesell

mis en ligne le 11 juin 2001

Pour son deuxième anniversaire, le chien Aibo vient de se voir offrir un portail web-TV.

© sony / Transfert

Né le 11 mai 1999, le chien robot Aibo a fêté son deuxième anniversaire. Une occasion marquée par la commercialisation d´une série limitée par Sony, qui vient de lui offrir une nouvelle fonction communicante (e-mail), mais l´habille aussi une nouvelle robe. Et ce n´est pas tout : cette star de la robotique commence à prendre pied sur le Web. Sony vient en effet d´ouvrir un site web-TV dont le héros n´est autre que l´Aibo. Aibo TV offre encore peu de contenu, le site étant toujours en phase de développement. On pourra toutefois y admirer quelques courtes séquences vidéo où le chien se prend pour un astrologue… D´autres émissions seraient à l´étude. Comme une rubrique météo qui sera mise à jour quotidiennement, et dont le présentateur star sera bien entendu notre cabot préféré. Les spectateurs auront aussi la possibilité d´envoyer des films “maisons” où seront mis en vedette leurs animaux électroniques favoris.

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Memoni robot : ICON : News

Please don’t cry lady, you’ll destroy my CPU.

Saturday, March 17, 2001

Japan’s toy giant Tomy has paid an employee to pretend she’s talking to their new communication robot Memoni, and she (the employee, not the robot) isn’t happy about it.

The robot is equipped with a 32-bit processor in its CPU, and has an LCD display that shows over 300 patterns of expression.

Memoni’s artificial intelligence enables it to recognize over 20,000 words in a conversational context and to respond with 2 billion sentence patterns.

Tomy will put Memoni on the Japanese market for 18,000 yen ($US150).

Icon Online only wonders why you’d have children at all when you can have Memoni?

Alexa Moses and agencies.

Go away, dear Kismet; you’re not my kismet

By Patricia Pearson

Tourists now visiting Boston can pop into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, if they’re so inclined, and check out an exhibit called, “Robots and Beyond: Exploring Artificial Intelligence at MIT.”

Among the other mechanical marvels on display is Kismet, a sociable humanoid robot who looks like a scrap heap with big Mickey Mouse eyes. Kismet is about as humanoid as my dishwasher, but the robot has a flexible rubber mouth stuck to its wires and widgets that can smile, frown, purse in disgust and open wide in surprise.

According to MIT’s Web site, Kismet has been designed to perceive “a variety of natural social cues” through “natural and intuitive social interaction with a human caregiver.” You have to think the programmers are getting a bit carried away, referring to a machine powered by 15 computers as an object in need of a “caregiver.” I could run over it with my Volvo and it wouldn’t even notice.

Still, the whole programming effort is modeled on infant development, with Kismet designed less to perform a specific task — such as lumbering around on Mars or lurching down mine shafts — than to be a blank slate that can learn emotional and social behavior by interacting with the environment.

Now, for me, the question arises: Do we really have to have sociable humanoid robots? Don’t we have any friends? Are we not getting along with our mothers? Did our beloved Siamese cat die, and we hope to replace her companionship with an object that can get whacked by a speeding Volvo and still smile?

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Reality bytes

Broadcast: June 7, 2001

Reporter: David Smith

From the Daleks to R2-D2, the creators of science fiction have invented robots which can think like humans. Stephen Spielberg’s new summer blockbuster – Artificial Intelligence – is no exception, with its heart-warming tale of a robot child who longs for love.

But it seems the prospect of an intelligent machine isn’t just confined to the imagination.

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Motorola and Flashline Demonstrate the Ultimate Wireless Lego Robot

Robots, Reuse and Java(TM) Technology Unite in a Wireless Environment At JavaOne(SM) 2001 Developer Conference

SAN FRANCISCO, June 4 /PRNewswire/ — Using a mobile phone to remotely control a robot might sound like science fiction, but it’s a reality that Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Flashline will demonstrate on a LEGO(R) MINDSTORMS(TM) robot at the JavaOne(SM) Developer Conference. The companies have combined the power of wireless technology, Java(TM) development and reusable software components to develop the ultimate wirelessly controlled robot. The companies will demonstrate this achievement in the Flashline booth (#1622) June 4-8 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

This demonstration will show how a Motorola i50sx handset with Java technology and “always on” Internet access can be used to remotely control a LEGO MINDSTORMS robot using a component-based application running on the phone. Users can remotely send commands from the Motorola i50sx phone through the Internet to the robot, which will dance, clap its hands, wag its tail, and move around in response. Both the handset and the application use Java(TM) 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME(TM)) technology. The reusable Java-based software components used in this application can be leveraged in other programs, saving developers considerable time by not having to write the software from scratch.

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