I’ve seen pics of a nice prototype at http://www.androidworld.com, but there are other lifelike androids? And I don’t mean Disneyland-like animatronics.
I have watched a number of shows discussing man’s quest to create a lifelike robot, and there are always a few obstacles that they cannot seem to overcome:
Bipedal walking while maintaining balance. It seesm that the process is so complex that it is difficult to get a “robot” to mimic walking while remaining upright on it’s own, all the while appearing “natural”
it’s easy enough for science to create a robot that “looks” human. The difficulty is getting it to “act” human.
So I would have to say that yes, humanoid-type androids are certainly in existance, but they might not perform very well just yet…
Rather than attempt to create an AI encased in an anthropomorphic housing, the reseachers have been concentrating on creating programs which can pass the Turing test on Web boards. One of the hallmarks of the new “artificials” is an almost exclusive interest in (and sophomoric discussion of) sexual behaviours. Of course, this criterium is not set in concrete.
Actually, Stupendious Man, they did crack walking relatively recently. Some Japanese company (I dont’ rember which one) actually has a humanoid walking robot of reasonable size (it looks like a guy with a backpack, actually) It can’t run, but it can walk, climb stairs, and stand on one foot.
It also requires an Eva-style wire connection to either a large computer or a power source (don’t rember which)
Special effects people have been able to make human-looking maniquins or anamatronics for a while now. For instance, realdoll . . .
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“Not too long ago, THIS was science fiction . . .”
[Edited by Chronos on 11-05-2000 at 08:53 PM]
I disabled the “RealDoll” link… I know it’s not exactly porn, but it’s awfully close to the borderline. If anyone can’t figure out the URL, you can e-mail them to tell them, Ura-Maru.
Besides, that’s a gynoid, not an android.
Ura-maru,
I think the robot you’re thinking of is the Honda P3. I got to see it in action once. Pretty cool.
Incidentally, Sony is releasing the Aibo 2 soon. The new version of their robot dog will respond to voice commands and have a wider range of “emotions”.
–sublight.
Here’s a link to the Honda robot site:
You’d think for such a big company they could hire a decent web page designer.
–sublight.
If only you all knew…
::climbs back into black helicopter::