Japan Brings Reality Of Robot Overlords One Step Closer

As if it isn’t bad enough to know that at the moment every job you are applying for in the UK, ten other people are applying for the same one, we now have to worry about the threat of robots stealing them too.

The Japanese government, who has said by 2015 they want a robot in every home, is spurring the robot takeover forward, investing $35 million (£23 million) into robotic intelligence.

The idea was brought forth as a solution to the ageing population, which is causing a declining workforce, pushing up wage costs and making recruitment tough; Japan’s instinctive answer is robots. In Japan robots guide traffic and one is currently in the works to provide companionship to Alzheimer’s sufferers.

The newest member of the robot elite is a school teacher named Saya. With her friendly face, cropped styled hair, and a smart yellow suit, she stands at the front of the class providing lessons. She is being trialed at a primary school in Tokyo, teaching youngsters with her robotic, polite voice.

Saya is a humanoid robot and can speak different languages, carry out roll calls, set tasks, scold children and make six facial expressions – anger, surprise, fear, disgust, sadness, and happiness. Unlike more mechanical looking robots like Honda’s Asimo (who fails at stairs), she looks and sounds like a human being; more A.I. than Johnny 5.

Science professor Hiroshi Kobayashi, at the University of Tokyo, has been laboring away on his mechanical lady for the past 15 years. Saya was originally developed to replace workers, specifically secretaries, in an attempt to cut costs and maintain ‘human’ interaction.

“Robots that look human tend to be a big hit with young children and the elderly,” said Kobayashi. “Children even start crying when they are scolded.” If I had a humanoid robot directing its “disgust” face at me I would probably do the same thing.

Sweaty, paranoid Matrix fans can breathe easy for now, as at the moment, robots like Saya are just remote-controlled by a human watching through cameras. Obayashi says Saya is just meant to help people and warns against getting hopes up too high for its possibilities. “The robot has no intelligence. It has no ability to learn. It has no identity,” he said. “It is just a tool.”

As well as Saya, we have this fashion model robot to start strutting her metal frame next week, though it’ll still probably demand Evian and cocaine backstage. A rather more useful robot foray in the works is the “Trauma Pod” – in ten years’ the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital could be replaced by a robot surgeon and nurse.

Trials are underway with a three-armed remote controlled robotic surgeon, known by friends as “Hawkeye” (a M*A*S*H reference). The surgical robot is aided by 12 other robots including a voice-activated “Hot Lips”, yet another M*A*S*H mention.

“Hot Lips” has a single arm that passes instruments to “Hawkeye” and disposes of used equipment. There is a third “circulating nurse” robot that dispenses the tools, while the Pod’s bed monitors vital signs and administers fluids and oxygen. The idea of the pod is to provide a temporary fix until the soldier can be taken to hospital.

It seems as if the robot days are finally upon us, the days we’ve been eagerly anticipating since we were fresh-faced youngsters watching the Jetsons, Short Circuit, Robocop, and R2-D2. Let’s just hope our future friends will be more like our childhood heroes and less like HAL9000 or Sid 6.7. As long as we can get them to say “Your mother was a snowblower”, the future will be officially awesome.

Posted by Trista Orchard in Sci-tech | March 17, 2009 2:43PM |