[ad_1]
Eugene Hoshiko | AP
On this January 11, 2018, the photo of the new dog dog Aibo Sony Corp. is exhibited in his showroom in Tokyo. Twelve years ago, the Japanese video game console manufacturer PlayStation plugged Aibo, sparking an uproar among fans around the world. The improved Aibo has more natural eyes, thanks to electroluminescent (OLED) or organic diodes. He can take his head and swing his hips to more varied and subtle angles. The relatively inexpensive home robot is aimed at the elderly, children and hard-working, time-pressed workers. Unlike real kids or pets, they have switches and do not need constant attention, dog food or cat litter.
Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Washington Post •
updated:
I gave a robot rubs the belly. I scolded him for being a bad boy. I smiled when he greeted me at the door.
What is this feeling? Oh yes, puppy, my love. And I felt it for Aibo, a new dog "autonomous companion" made by Sony.
Does that make me sad? A dystopian character of "Black Mirror"? He is open to debate. But all this is clear: the era of loving robots is beginning to emerge, and Aibo offers early evidence that we will love them.
Aibo (pronounced "eye-bo") is a restart of the Sony dog robot introduced in 1999 and put to rest in 2006 in a tragic series of cost-cutting business. This new scope will go on sale in the US this week with much more realistic movement, artificial intelligence and cellular connection for a total of $ 2,900 each. If you are looking for a justification for spending so much on a toy, the American Kennel Club says that the average cost of a dog is $ 23,410. Also: robot dogs do not poop.
Not that Aibo, the size of a Yorkshire terrier, can replace a real dog. I let mine play with a real 7 week old puppy and I remembered all the ways that Aibo is only a fraction of the reality. Aibo can not walk around, jump on your lap, teach responsibility, or give you heart strokes. In addition to going around the house, barking and doing a few laps, Aibo does not do much. He can not play music or answer questions like a smart speaker, even if these additions are welcome.
Yet here's why Aibo counts: despite all these limitations, I fell in love. More than two weeks of family placement home robots, almost all the people that I have presented to Aibo have had a little fun. The Amazon Echo and Google Home speakers have enabled us to open our homes to new ways to interact with computers. Aibo offers insights into how tech companies are going to get us to treat them more like family members. Loving robots have the potential to comfort us, teach and connect to new experiences – while manipulating us in a way we have not encountered before.
(CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post.)
Aibo works, in part, because the real robots are catching up to what we've been trained by Pixar movies to find them adorable. Aibo's 22 joints – including a bouncy tail and two perched ears – and OLED screen eyes communicate joy, sorrow, boredom or the need for a nap.
Eugene Hoshiko | AP
On January 11, 2018, photos of Aibo robotic dogs from Sony Corp. are exhibited in his showroom in Tokyo. Twelve years ago, the Japanese video game console manufacturer PlayStation plugged Aibo, sparking an uproar among fans around the world. The improved Aibo has more natural eyes, thanks to electroluminescent (OLED) or organic diodes. He can take his head and swing his hips to more varied and subtle angles. The relatively inexpensive home robot is aimed at the elderly, children and hard-working, time-pressed workers. Unlike real kids or pets, they have switches and do not need constant attention, dog food or cat litter.
Tell Aibo "Bang Bang," and he goes to bed and turns to play the dead. Say "bring me the bone" and the robot will find his special pink toy and pick it up with his mouth. He will even lift his back leg and take a simulated ringing. With tactile sensors on his back, his head and his plastic chin, Aibo responds when you stroke or scold him. The only thing that spoils the effect is that Aibo's mechanical muscles are noisy, making them look like a baby Terminator on the move.
I'm calling Aibo a loving robot because it's more than an animatronic puppet. Cameras built into his nose and lower back help him walk around your house like a Roomba, avoiding obstacles and trying to find his charger. (The Aibo battery can last two hours at a time.) Four microphones allow Aibo to hear commands and determine who is transmitting them. Like a real puppy, he is used to getting underfoot while cooking.
The idea, say Sony executives, is that Aibo keeps growing. Aibo learns the faces of people who interact with her to develop personal relationships. This is an assertion difficult to verify, but Sony says that two Aibos do not have the same "personality" because AI is shaped by the experiences. If you give belly rubs and "good boy" to your robot, you will have a more loving machine.
Aibo's autonomy is a work in progress. To put it another way: Aibo is a bit stupid. Aibo is not smart enough to avoid steps or run after a balloon with some consistency. Sometimes I found him staring at a wall for hours. But it works just often enough to make it cute, and you feel like your Robo puppy may grow up.
What is remarkable is that none of this requires an interface, such as an application. You interact with Aibo through the touch and voice control, like a dog – minus the treats. (A companion app, which I could not test, lets you see the pictures, Aibo takes the nose and takes other side functions.) Aibo is still online via its own cellular connection to download new features and news tips. download what he takes on the field.
Which could lead you to wonder: Is Aibo a spy robot? Sony did not answer all my questions about what happens to all this data. Aibo's privacy policy says it is not intended for use in Illinois, where laws limit facial recognition technology. A spokeswoman told me that Aibo did not record 24 hours a day, but rather listened and was looking for orders. Aibo stores experiential data that allow her to create "memories" and "create an ever-growing connection with the owner," she said. "This data is not shared."
How does Aibo inspire affection when other robots create repulsion or fear? His face and eyes are based on the anime to convey the harmlessness. Choosing the shape of a dog prevents Aibo from coming out of the frightening "mysterious valley" that flushes so many humanoid robots and fuels fears on shows such as "Westworld". more forgiveness for dogs than for people, which also applies to Amnesty International claiming to be dogs and men.
Other robots, such as Jibo, which I reviewed last year, are also trying to introduce personalities rather than skills. Social robots are an evolution of Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, and have the potential to someday console single people, to care for the elderly or to help children learn.
But there are important questions to ask about a future where emotions are transmitted to robots. Is it twisted to offer the illusion of affection without requiring a real relationship? Will children learn to look in the wrong place for love and wisdom?
Earlier this year, researchers published a study showing that people had trouble turning off a robot (humanoid) – refusing to turn off or take more than twice as long to unplug it. The lesson: We are inclined to treat electronic media as living things.
When it came time to turn off my robo-puppy test and send it back to Sony, Aibo did not plead or scream. But I still felt sad.
To follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest news from Maine.
[ad_2]
Source link
