ROBOTS DREAMS - Robot news and robot hacks from a true robot geek

Speecys J-Pop Robot Band Debut (Video)

Since Speecys is debuting it’s latest human/robot communication project in California this week, we thought it was a great chance to share the debut music video of the Speecys J-Pop Robot Band.

Enjoy!

Speecys To Announce New Human/Robot Communication Project (Video)

Assuming that everything goes according to plan, Speecys Corporation will be unveiling an impressive new human/robot communication project at TieCon2009 in Santa Clara, California later today. We had the opportunity to discuss the project with Tomoaki Kasuga at the Speecys headquarters here last week, and to discuss his exciting vision for the future.

A Little Different View of the Speecys Internet Robot (Video)

One of the big problems we consistently face as technologists is in recognizing and understanding new advances. We, like most human beings on the planet, automatically seem to classify new objects and experiences into our existing categories. We look at something new, and quickly decide that it is 'just like x...', then we put that label on it, and we quit trying to really understand it for what it really is, or might become.

A recent example of this is the SPC-101C 'internet robot' introduction held just a couple weeks ago here in Tokyo. Many reporters saw the SPC-101C as just another humanoid robot - not much different from dozens they are already familiar with. Other reporters were impressed by the vision/face recognition abilities of the robot, and quickly, within just a few hours, popular technology sites were trumpeting the news that Speecys had just introduced a "face-recognizing" robot.

Of course both of those views of the robot are true, but in many ways they are like peeking into a room via the keyhole. They only tell a small part of the total story. We'd like to expand those limited views to include much more of what the robot is capable of, and the promise for the future that it represents.

Speecys SPC-101C Humanoid Robot: A First Look (Video)

We spent most of the afternoon and early evening at the Speecys labs here in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, and thanks to the kindness, and openness, of Kasuga-san, the Speecys founder, we came away with a wealth of information, and a totally new perspective on how humanoid robotics is likely to evolve over the next few years.

We'll need quite a few posts, over the next week or two, to explain why this new robot is so exciting, and its promise for the future. But, we do want to share a brief video (see below) to give you a taste for the robot's ability.