ROBOTS DREAMS

New Japanese Humanoid Robot Book

Iwaki-san and Tanaka-san have put together a new humanoid robot book that we know is destined to join our rapidly growing library, and workshop. The book, titled "Custom Robot Perfect Book", has us drooling just from the cover photos alone. Add in the fact that Iwaki-san has designed and built some totally awesome robots, including Five - one of the ROBO-ONE 13 finalists, and Tanaka-san is famous for his robot suit/shell designs....

Well, hopefully we'll be able to track down a copy of the new book in Akihabara this weekend. If we're lucky enough to snare one you'll hear about it here with all the great and gory details.

ROBO-ONE 13: Tim Hornyak's Perspective on the ROBO-ONE Phenomena (Video)

Tim Hornyak is a well known expert on the history and development of Japanese robots, as well as the author of "Loving the Machine", a best selling book that explores the 'art and science of Japanese robots"

We had the great pleasure of spending the afternoon with Tim at ROBO-ONE 13 on Sunday. Of course, we couldn't let the opportunity for an interview (see video below) escape, so we grabbed our camera, put Tim in front of one of the ROBO-ONE banners (just like the Oscars!) and kept feeding him straight lines...

i-SOBOT: First Book to be Published

It didn't take long at all. The first i-SOBOT book is scheduled to hit book stores here in Japan at the end of November. The book title is "Omnibot Fan Book - i-SOBOT and 80's Robot Collection". Of course, we have pre-ordered a copy and will let you know how it stacks up as soon as we receive it.

 

Takara/Tomy i-SOBOT Humanoid Robot Featured in DIME Magazine

The current issue of DIME magazine, a popular market trend watching publication here in Japan, has a short feature article on the soon to be released Omnibot 2007 i-SOBOT humanoid robot from Takara/Tomy.

Billed as the 'World's Smallest', the tiny robot packs a lot of power and technology into its 16.5 cm/350 gram body. According to one of the taglines in the DIME article, the i-SOBOT features "minimal size and price" for a humanoid robot, but with all the degrees of freedom, flexibility, and personality of it's bigger robot cousins.

ROBOCON Magazine Hits Issue #50

 
The latest issue of Robocon Magazine No. 50 is on magazine stands here and online via Amazon Japan. As usual it's full of great content, lots of event reports, some interesting construction walk throughs, an overview of all the exciting robot competitions planned for 2007, and even one surprising photo of a very strange 'gaijin' enjoying robot soccer Japanese style.

Japanese Robot Books - ROBO-ONE Guide

We are often asked about the Japanese books and magazines we read and could recommend to others. At first we hesitated to make any suggestions given the language challenges, but enough people have indicated an interest that we've decided to regularly post about some of the best robot publications available here in Japan. It also turns out to be very easy to order them from overseas, as we explain below.

A good place to start is with the ROBO-ONE Official Guide since the book gives a great overview of the ROBO-ONE events, competitors, and organization while including a wealth of graphics and photos that even fans that don't understand any Japanese will find fascinating. 

ROBO-ONE Manga Featured On Yahoo Japan

The Yahoo Japan Comics section is currently running a Act-On manga series section from Flex Comix for a limited time. The Act-On storyline, created by Minoru Kamiya, features the adventures, and misadventures of an active group of ROBO-ONE robot fans and builders. In addition to a general overview of the manga, there are also several links to pop-up windows with previous chapters in the series.

Mailman Brings A Very Pleasant Robot Surprise

Gogic Five and friend discovered an article with a very familiar robot in the Robot Magazine Spring issue!

And, as they flipped through the pages, they discovered even more . . . .

Rediscovering "The Modern Robot"

In doing some research, Ryan ran across several images that included a robot that he thought must have been constructed in the 1940's or earlier, but couldn't locate any background information. So, he turned to the comp.robotics.misc group on the internet for help. Within 24 hours several group members responded with helpful information and pointers. A few days later there were more details, and in less than a week the story behind the robot was confirmed.

The robot turned out to be "Alpha", a 6 foot 4 inch steel giant that tipped the scales at around 1 ton, yet was able to respond to spoken questions using primitive voice recognition. During demonstrations that took place in 1934, it would answer questions, "read" a newspaper, and even fire a pistol. Unfortunately Alpha had never heard of Asimov's Three Laws, because according to a November 1934 Time Magazine article the robot managed to blast the skin off it's inventor's arm, and on another occasion put an assistant in the hospital.

New Book Covering The KHR Series Robots in Detail

Robot Force in Osaka, the organizers of some of our favorite robot competitions like Robo-Fight and Robo-Gong have just announced the publication of a new book titled "KHR-Perfect" that will hit store shelves at the end of January here in Japan.

Hacking Roomba - How To Hijack The World's Most Popular Robot Vacuum Cleaner

 
It looks like we have a very interesting Christmas coming up. Although they are relatively hard to come by here in Japan, Christmas morning is very likely to find a brand new iRobot Roomba under the tree. We've been drooling over the Roomba for a long, long time.

 And, to go along with it, there will also be a brand new book titled - Hacking Roomba: ExtremeTech that includes hacks documenting how to drive the Roomba, play with sensors, get it to sing, connect it to the net, turn it into a mobile Roomba-cam, and even how to put Linux on the Roomba.

Actually, on second thought, we better buy two Roomba's. One to keep our floors clean, and a second one to hack and have fun with...

MANOI AT01 Appears In Two Famous Places At Once

MANOI AT01, the new humanoid robot from Kyosho, sure gets around. Even though he's not available for general sale outside of Japan yet, he's popping up in well-known newspapers, magazines, and websites all over the world. Yesterday, November 1st, he outdid himself by appearing in two famous publications at the same time.

First, he showed up on the Wired.com website in an excellent article titled "I, Robot Builder" written by Tim Hornyak the author of "Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots." The article has just the right mix of facts and humor to give you a real taste of what he went through building the robot right out of the box. Tim is well qualified to report on the MANOI AT01 given his years of experience as a technology, culture, and history reporter based here in Japan since 1999.

Second, the MANOI AT01 graced the five pages in a feature article for the Winter 2006 issue of ROBOT Magazine that hit news stands and bookstores on the 1st. The article includes a lot of the background behind the robot's development, its ROBO-ONE legacy, and an interesting performance comparison chart. There are also some nice excerpts from the print article in a 'teaser' version on the ROBOT Magazine website.

Is RFID a Hobbyist Tool Yet?

Engadget, one of our favorite online sources of interesting and “wow” technology stuff, just ran an article on super-RFID tags and the Department of Homeland Security. The obvious twist on that story is the invasion of privacy angle, and of course that is a serious concern. But it also got us thinking more deeply about the application of RFID tags to more mundane problems - like how your robot might know its location and how it might follow you around . . .

The Secret To Robot Humor (Video)

As every good comedian and humorist finds out sooner or later, the real key to getting belly laughs from your audience is to connect with them at a gut level, and the key to establishing that connection is to choose the right audience. So, it’s no surprise that when Daniel H. Wilson, the author of How To Survive A Robot Uprising, visited Google recently to talk about the book, and tell a few robot jokes, he found a very receptive audience.

New Magazine Out

Ollie, at earthrobot.com, was kind enough to send me a heads-up about a new magazine that is hot off the presses, and really looks - well, how can I put it? What's the word? Oh, yeah, I know - HOT!

Robo-One Guide Published by Ohmsha

Ohmsha, the scientific and engineering book publisher, has a new 'mook' out that covers Robo-One in a great deal of detail. 'Mook', if you're not already familiar with the term, is uniquely Japanese publishing format that combines the best aspects of a magazine with a book. Billed as the 'Robo-One Official Guide', and authored by the Robo-One committee, it speaks with some authority on the subject.

Philip K Dick Android

Philip K Dick and J. Marshall Pittman
Originally uploaded by jmarshallpittman.

J. Marshall Pittman is pictured in the photo with the new Philip K Dick android. PKD, for those that aren't aware, wrote numerous short stories and novel. Most of his stories were Science Fiction - usually with some strange twist, and many of them have been made into popular movies.

Recommended Resources - Books, Magazines, and other good robot related stuff

Since you found your way to this page, you must be as addicted to robotics and experimenting as much as I am, and are always on the look out for good robot and technology books and magazines. You'll find some of my favorites listed below along with comments about the author.

Phillip Torrone is famous for the art of the 'quick and dirty' hack. He takes an old digital camera lying around on the shelf, mashes it with a Radio Shack 555 timer chip ($1.50) and a few wires. In less than an hour he has the camera setup to automatically take endless photos until it runs out of memory space or the batteries run down. The next morning he has the hacked camera taking aerial photos hung from a kite! He writes regularly for Engadget, Popular Science, Make Magazine, and other publications. His articles and book contributions are always interesting, well documented with photos and how-to information, and best of all - they're fun to read even if you don't attempt every one of his hacks.

	Phillip Torrone: Flash Enabled: Flash Design and Development for Devices Flash development applied to the real world! "In Flash Enabled: Flash Design & Development for Devices, a talented group of leading-edge Flash developers describe how to create compelling Flash content for everything from cell phones to TVs to ATMs and more."
	Make: Technology on Your Time The ultimate garage hacker's dream magazine."MAKE brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life and celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend your technology to your will. MAKE ignites your ingenuity and connects you with your fellow "Makers."

Myke Predko’s “day job” is managing the server and high performance system tests for Celestica, but in his off hours he’s authored more than a dozen books on a wide range of electronics and engineering topics. Myke is frequently in demand to give presentations for major robotics events, and is known for his ability to explain complex topics in a very simple and easy to understand manner, without dumbing things down for the audience.

	Myke Predko: 123 Robotics Experiments for the Evil Genius (TAB Robotics) A step by step introduction to robotics using inexpensive parts. Walks you through the creation of simple robots and experiments while making the learning process fun.
	Myke Predko: Programming Robot Controllers Myke does an excellent job of covering one of the most difficult and complex aspects of building a robot – how to program the controller and interface your robot to the real world.

 

My ratings will usually range from to since my mother always told me, "if you don't have anything good to say, keep your mouth shut." So, if I honestly feel that something doesn't at least rate a , I'm not going to waste your time by posting a negative review here.

Note: If you have a favorite book or magazine that you don't see on this list and would like to share it, please feel free to send me the information so I can check it out as a possible addition.