Chris Cantell Discusses Science: Robots as our family? by Barbora Misakova

I would bet there is no one who has never seen movie about robots. Movies such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence & 2001 movie, I, Robot with Will Smith, Final Fantasy, Robocop, or Star Wars are known not only to sci-fi fans. Robots are just constant topic of scientist, sociologists and all humans around the world. Some of us are enthusiastic & some really believe they could help us with cleaning, cooking and other secondary activities. But then there are also those who are afraid of them. What if they hurt us? How can we believe in machines? The point is we will never find it out if we do not try it.Some engineering students from university lab in Tokyo are doing some tests on robots. These students think that robots need for their living among people "handle complex social tasks" said a leader of this project, Junichi Takeno. He adds robots will need understand and feel emotions to be able to cooperate with people. That's why they wire a robot face to simulate six expressions & fear, anger, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust. They believe this could help not only robots to understand humans, but also humans to get along better with robotsThis robotic revolution is connected with Japan. And it has a reason & its population is old. Japaneses think robots could replenish the work force and also care for the elderly. To be honest it seems to me a bit sick. Instead of trying to motivate young people to have babies and fixing relationship with adults, they are going to create thousands and thousands of robots? I don't want to say I am completely against it but honestly some of the reasons are just weird. Japan is the only country where are robots used in almost all spheres. They are in Japanese factories, hospitals and companies. They can work as receptionists, they can serve tea, vacuum office corridors, feed the elderly, greet company guests or even guide patients to and from the outpatients' surgery area. Let's look on some statistics. A single robot can replace about 10 employees! In 2005 there were more than 370.000 robots working at the factories across Japan. But not to show only one side of this topic & there are still some roadblocks. Some of the elderly inhabitants of Japan do not believe in robots and there are still some of them who "prefer dealing with real people." Another problem with continuing this robotic revolution are money. Such a robotic creature can costs ranging from $120 to $2000 & depends on many the producer and the type of it. So there are still questions if this Japanese ambition comes true.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080302/ap_on_sc/japan_robot_nation;_ylt=AvBzbGKJhI53vDRzKb7mRmas0NUE

by Barbora Misakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

These news are original content from young talents around the world and are selected for you by Chris Cantell.


edited by Beata Biskova