Found out about the Nao Robot from watching Discovery Channel's Daily Planet - Hightech Toys week and was highly impressed. Sure, I seen it before in Japan's soccer-bots and similar, but this just stands out on its own for what it can do. It isn't a gimmicky kids toy (hopefully), and it can behave close to a Busou Shinki.

-> Homepage:
http://www.aldebaran-robotics.com/en/Di ... tform.html

-> Daily Planet clip - 5:40 in:
http://watch.discoverychannel.ca/daily- ... clip826650

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This robot seems to be in Stage 1 (or maybe even 3 if we count remote control and Furbies) of Robotics and Busou Shinki intelligence. It isn't close, but it is getting close to it! It knows when you're around, it knows what to say, and it can even correct itself when it falls. It can grab onto things, identify (certain) things, and even connect to the internet to "cheap" for knowledge. It's getting close to the Shinki's we know and love.

I bet we can train it to do some basic cleaning and even tell it to do certain basic things. Just a matter of time before we get close to the Busou Shinki level heh. The way it connects to the internet could be considered to be similar to this image -> http://ghostlysubstance.swgbex.com/Blog ... P10-21.jpg - Minus the holo-screen.

I would like to have one to see what part of it is a gimmick and what part of it can be pointed towards the Busou Shinki tech-tree. Would also be a dream-come-true if Konami teamed up with this company to make Busou Shinki robots in a similar fashion, while still being affordable in Dollfie price-range, or when PS3 launched by being $1000 CAD. This thing can pretty much do half the things a Shinki can in a general manner. Tech it up!

Thoughts? Opinions?

Need female body

Doesn't have to be Jessica Rabbit's body (bewbs ahoy!), but still...

Doesn't even have to be truly autonomous, either. Pre-programmed routines with learning logic is probably enough to enable it to "learn" new routines within its environment. Processing power and energy capacity still needs to be researched, though this could open up the path.

And, yes, needs female body. With the current level of miniaturization, though, we're not gonna be seeing any 15 cm. Robot Meter Maids scurrying around with hand wipes yet. Doesn't help that shinkis have been described as having the Impossible Hourglass Figure.

I wouldn't describe Shinki figures as "hourglass," just impossibly thin for anything not on a 15cm scale. Square-cube law at work.

The Nao is definitely impressive. Getting up from a sitting position (and likely un-predetermined fall position) is hard in and of itself; I'm interested if it has every single move pre-programmed or follows a balance-keeping algorithm while attempting to move to a specified configuration. Short of true intelligence (the Nao is basically Siri in a robot body), the Nao has basically everything a base MMS body would need, just larger and less efficient. Looking at the joints on the Nao, though, I'm realizing how unrealistic Shinki joints are; no room for motors anywhere. And, obviously, the Nao doesn't have the armor-summoning thing as seen in the anime (though I'm still a fan of manually equipping armor). With that aside, though, the Nao is obviously close; 2036 is starting to look like a very conservative estimate for seeing Shinki-level automation.

when i heard about this from AK on twitter the first thing i though was "finally konami is releasing more shinkis"

then... this....

yes i got things mixed up...

but after reading the whole thing i have to say... even if it lacks the beauty of a shinki, we might be really close to make the dream come true... as long as in the end it doesnt cost the same thing as an aibo....

I'm scared of technology. Give it a weapon, and then say, here's your freedom of thought and decision making... then we have the plotline for every robot killing machine horror movie out there. I like my shinkis pretend. That way I'm not dissapointed, or more importantly dead...lol

I kid, this thing is awesome.

Thats why Shinkis are programmed to love us.
So now we just have to worry about them going yandere.

Or deciding that whatever we're doing at the time is more harmful to us than a loss of kneecaps. We could go on about plenty of Skynet or Zeroth-Law possibilities, but I think that when it comes down to it, if we wind up creating computers that really can think like humans, they'll develop some semblance of morals, if only because without them, any robot society would also collapse. I'd wager money that morals are subject to convergent behavioral evolution whenever sentience and social behavior is involved.

Klinkin wrote:Or deciding that whatever we're doing at the time is more harmful to us than a loss of kneecaps. We could go on about plenty of Skynet or Zeroth-Law possibilities, but I think that when it comes down to it, if we wind up creating computers that really can think like humans, they'll develop some semblance of morals, if only because without them, any robot society would also collapse. I'd wager money that morals are subject to convergent behavioral evolution whenever sentience and social behavior is involved.

There have been some interesting debates over this over the years. I agree that if the robots actually have a highly enough developed intelligence, with a focus on self and others preservation, then yes, a "moral code" could in theory evolve withing the guidelines of the intended use for said robot...

It's when you don't give them enough logic to know that hurting someone will end badly for them that is dangerous..

Caterwaul wrote:Thats why Shinkis are programmed to love us.
So now we just have to worry about them going yandere.

Oh you mean like Maryceles? LOLs