shjinn: If Futurama has taught me anything, it’s that robots are like turtles – totally helpless and vulnerable when they get knocked on their back.
Not Qrio. On Sony’s web site they have video of Qrio getting up by himself after being knocked onto his back and his front. It’s cool to watch.
Until they actually take the time to watch a turtle, that is. Then we’re back to being screwed!
It doesn’t look look like running as much as it looks like the cartoon “Tiptoe and sneak up on someone” crouch-walk. It’s even more amusing if you watch it with the theme music from the Pink Panther playing in your head.
Soon they’ll be able to chase us!
Interesting, but I’ve got to say that I’m less impressed with this that I have been with ASIMO’s previous exploits, such as stair climbing. On a side note, I have been completely unable to convince my boss that there isn’t just a person inside ASIMO (even the videos where you could see daylight though the knee and elbow joints didn’t scratch the surface)
[Peter Griffin]Is your robot running?
If so, it probably runs like you. Very homosexually.[/Peter Griffin]
Seriously, though, it really does. 
The Asimo is, and always has been, a fantastic and scary device.
Asimo’s only about 3-4 feet tall, isn’t he? It would have to be a pretty small person.
Qrio is only a couple of feet tall.
Pish! “Running” robots. My robotic, spider-legged war machines could tear one of those apart, after running ins circles around it, and taking a robo-poop on it’s head.
(I win)
I just realized that Regallag is almost Gallagher backwards.
So what do you axe, Regallag? Watermelons?
[channelling my boss]Ah! that’s right and Japanese people are short, are they not?
Actually, both companies have said that it would have been easier to make bigger robots, but they made them smaller to avoid threatening people. A 3 foot running robot is cute. A six foot running robot is intending to kill you.
There’s a concept called “The Uncanny Valley” which applies here. Basically, it says that when you’re trying to recreate a human, if you get it perfect, people think it’s cool. If you get it so wrong it’s a caricature (like cartoons, or Asimo), people think it’s impressive. But there’s a region in between, where the thing is so realistic you start accepting it, but different enough that it creeps you out. Some animatronics are like that, and the digitally created characters in Final Fantasy (the movie) can trigger that.
Both Asimo and Qrio are in ‘the uncanny valley’, in my opinion. There’s some video where Qrio turns and looks at the camera, and tilts his head just so, that is just freaky. Same with the fandance. The jumping, not so much. Because it doesn’t look very human.
I said, “like cartoons or Asimo”. I meant “Like cartoons and puppets”.
I’m not worried, I’ve got robot insurance .
I just decided to bite the bullet, install RealPlayer and take a look at the Sony offering; I’ve gotta say, I really like the little guy - Sony has obviously taken a lot of care about the nuances of gesture, poise, etc - on that video of QRIO interacting with a bunch of kids, for example - there’s what I believe to be a bit of processing delay while it interprets a spoken question, but they’ve programmed it to adopt a pensive stance - the arms fold, the eyes look slightly downwards and so on, then it looks up and answers the question. A masterpiece of design. I want one.
I feel the same way. Ultra cool. Unfortunately, Sony isn’t selling them, and has no plans to. They’re a technology demonstrator, used to promote Sony in Japan. I read somewhere that if Qrio was for sale, he’d cost tens of thousands of bucks. Plus, I’ll bet they break down a lot with all those actuators, motors, and other moving parts.
Asimo looks cool running.
I want 100’s of them, with blasters, chasing me while I dodge and shoot them.
It would be a neat homemovie.
He’s not running…he’s sneaking!
They may not be selling QRIO, but I’d be reasonably confident one of his descendants will reach the market, hopefully even more advanced, rather than a dumbed-down walking furby. Gonna be expensive for sure.
But what do they do? What are they for?