kobian: emotional humanoid robot

July 30, 2009

drive rewinds, the drive

on the drive with kenny jones – we discussed the latest innovation by japan’s waseda university – kobian:  the emotional humanoid robot.  not only is it able to walk about and interact with humans, but it uses its entire body in addition to its facial expressions to display a full range of emotions.

kobian-robot-kenny-jones

that’s the best you can do?  how about a layer of latex skin over the thing or somthin’.  that’s just creepy, man.

kobian can show feelings including delight, surprise, sadness and dislike. the robot uses motors in its face to move its lips, eyelids and eyebrows into various positions.  kobian can show feelings including delight, surprise, sadness and dislike.  it uses motors in its face to move its lips, eyelids and eyebrows into various positions and has adopted different body poses to back-up the emotions.

this got us contemplating whether or not creating a robot that can think and feel is a good idea.  here’s what the drive contingent had to say about it…

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have we not learned anything from the movies?  it’s only a matter of time before they figure out they don’t need us.

movies with angry robots

  • i-robot
  • the terminator
  • the matrix
  • 2001: a space odyssey
  • war games
  • the black hole
  • eagle eye
  • stepford wives
  • blade runner
  • wall-e

okay, maybe not that last one – but still, you get the idea!

terminator kenny jones radio

snap out of it, japan!  nothing good can come of this.  we’ll become expendable.  please halt any an all production of those creepy emotional humanoid robot thingies!

catch the drive with kenny jones – weekdays from 4-7pm exclusively on beat-fm 102.5 or online at mybeat.fm.

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