Sdtrk: ‘The light’ by Merzbow

The inspectors have come round, and declared our place to be Swede-free, so Sidore-chan and I are back to our regular status of being Internet personalities, as opposed to television personalities. She’s asleep at the moment, so meanwhile I’m busy composing the posts that will detail the past week-end’s events. The series will be called ‘My Morbid Onion Hell: How I Galloped To The Edge of Sanity In A Burning Hansom Cab’, and it’ll span 23 parts. It should be up before the week-end, cross fingers, so keep an eye out!

In the meantime, enjoy a picture I’d taken on Friday!

To my chagrin, these were not free samples

Sdtrk: ‘Secondo coro delle Lavandaie’ by Roberto de Simone

During a recent whirl on the Internuts, I typed ‘My living Doll DVD’ into Google as a bit of folly. Yeah, I know I’ve been trying to keep abreast of any and all news on that, but sometimes things slip under my radar. Like this new Giant Robo feature, for instance. But that’s another story altogether.
So one of the links leads me to a telly-series-on-DVD forum, where I found this thread — ‘My living Doll & My Favorite Martian‘ — which dates from the 16th of last month. The original poster, who claims to work with Jack Chertok Television, Inc. (Jack Chertok being the producer of both shows), starts out with

To all those fans of both shows here is some word on both,

My Living Doll, Starring Julie Newmar.. Most of the key film elements have now been located, the show is about to be restored and put on a non bootleg DVD for the first time.

and I’m thinking, ‘but I’d read the prints were destroyed in a fit of pique!’, which is pretty much what someone had posted, and the OP responds with

The truth is stranger than the fiction you have read all these years, fact one producer Jack Chertok NEVER threw out My Living Doll elements, they were miss placed, also due to the strange way many of the shows were registered back in the sixties many people thought it was PD, not so the rights are intact.
The show is a present being put back together element by element. to make perfect hi def masters.

Hmm. As long as this poster’s real name isn’t Lucifer, the Prince of Lies, this is fantastic news. I’ll believe it when those hallowed DVDs are in my sweaty hands, however..

Speaking of Synthetiks, you might want to give my YouTube page a look-in if you’re so inclined, as I’ve posted not one, but two new videos there. Happy 23rd!

Technorati tags: My living Doll, Julie Newmar, Gynoid, sitcom, DVD

Sdtrk: ‘Destination unknown’ by Missing persons

Remember how I’d mentioned that there was a lass — Caroline, by name — from the far-off land of the United Arab Emirates, that wanted to conduct an interview with yours truly? Well, I’d gotten an Email from her last month, which stated that although she dug my answers, she was waiting to hear from her magazine, as the social climate in Dubai is changing regarding being able to print things of a sexual nature. It had astounded me when Elena first mentioned that Caroline wanted to do this in the first place, as she’d mentioned that she was from the UAE, and I’d thought a RealDoll-related interview would probably go over there about as well as one being published in a Shaker magazine. Do Shakers even have magazines? There’s so much I don’t know.

On the obverse side of the coin, however, next week-end will find myself and Sidore-chan being filmed again, ths time by a Swedish film crew! Sofia, who is the ‘research praktik’ for a show in Sweden entitled ‘Outsiders’ for Titan Television, had originally asked at the same time the English film crew did a few months ago, and originally I’d responded ‘sorry, it’s too hot out’. Actually, I’d said that to both the English and the Swedes, but the English effectively bribed me first by offering to ship Shi-chan out to the RealDoll Doctor. Sofia wrote again on the first of August, saying ‘well, if we fly you out to Abyss Creations for a day of filming, as well as pay for your hotel stay, will you do this for us?’ My arm was therefore twisted. 🙂 So on 25 Aug, I’m jetting out to the factory to be filmed with Matt McMullen, and on the 26th, I fly home and will be filmed with Sweetie in someplace air-conditioned — either round at the hotel the Swedish film crew will be staying at, or at another location — and the wonderful Monti will be present for a number of questions, to provide the ‘friend of an iDollator’ perspective. Huh!

I’d like to mention that this interview for ‘Outsiders’ will be the eleventh media appearance my Synthetik wife and I have made; I’d tallied them up at work. The stakes for their bribery keep increasing with each interview, though, so at this rate, the next television/film crew might well have to purchase Sweetie a new body, hint hint…

Sdtrk: ‘What goes on’ by the Velvet underground

I didn’t expect China to throw their hat into the Gynoid production ring, but as the Little Caesar’s telly advert once used to say, ‘Anything’s possible. I taught my dog to say “I love you”‘.’

She’s addressed by ‘Miss’. That means she’s single. Hmm

Scientists unveil female robot
Reuters | August 09, 2006, 17:30

A group of Chinese scientists completed their work last week on a new robot named Miss Rong Cheng. The robot’s designers say she is equipped with cutting-edge technology in human-to-robot interaction and responds to human voices.

The robot is designed to look like a woman and it is programmed to speak Mandarin as well as a Sichuan dialect because she will be sent to the Sichuan Science Museum in Chengdu to act as a receptionist and tour guide.

“Our institute has been making great efforts in developing voice recognition system for many years … Meanwhile, the voice recognition function can make the communication between humans and robots more natural and personal, which highlights the progress we have achieved in making our robots more human-like”, Yue Hongqiang, the robot’s designer, said.

Robot to be sold to hotels, entertainment outlets
The cost of this project is $37 500 and besides dancing and greeting, the 168cm, 60kg “beauty” responds to 500 to 1 000 commands in Mandarin. It took around a year for the scientists to finish this first human simulation robot in China.

The designers hope to sell the robots next year to customers such as hotels and entertainment outlets. The most advanced robot in the world is sleek-looking Asimo, produced by Japanese auto-maker Honda. Asimo, who can walk at a speed of one mile per hour and climb up and down stairs, costs roughly $1 million.

As she lacks the smooth artificial skin of my lovely little Actroid-chan, or even EveR-1, she’s not as, well, sexy, but nevertheless, she’s an autonomous Synthetik, and that’s Good. In fact, her more robot-like appearance might provide a good bridge from automata that are non-humanoid, to Synthetiks that are more like Actroid et al.
Keep up the good work, Miss Rong Cheng! But please go find some better clothes. What, are you headed for a can-can circa 1986 or something?

The call goes out for videos of her in action! YouTube and Flash-based videos like this one don’t really count, as I want something I can save to my hard drive, so if any of you fine people run across any, do let me know

*I must, at this point, apologise for the hideous Subj.title, but it could’ve been worse, and been based around Wang Chung. Nevertheless, I’m so very very sorry

Technorati tags: Rong Cheng, Actroid, EveR-1, Android, Gynoid, robot

Sdtrk: ‘Broke my neck (Long version)’ by Echo and the Bunnymen

Right; someone needs to buy me a plane ticket and fly me out to this event right fucking now.

Obligatory photo of Ando-san, but you expected that

Once, Twice, Three Times an Android
New Gallery Exhibition Showcases Robot Women, Electronic Eves

Queens, N.Y. – Lara Croft, the Japanese robot Repliee Q2, and the Stepford Wives are a few of the artificial women pictured in Alluring Androids, Robot Women, and Electronic Eves, a new gallery exhibition opening June 17 at the New York Hall of Science.

Exploring artists’, filmmakers’, and photographers’ long-time fascination with images of artificial women that seem alive, Alluring Androids, Robot Women, and Electronic Eves contains large images of female robots, androids, automatons, dolls, mannequins, and other artificial women. These include images from films, photography, intermedia art, animation, and video ranging from early automatons to the life-like female androids in today’s video and computer games.

The exhibit is curated by State University of New York, Maritime College Professor Julie Wosk, author of Women and the Machine: Representations From the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age and Breaking Frame: Technology and the Visual Arts in the Nineteenth Century.

Alluring Androids, Robot Women, and Electronic Eves will be on view in the Walter O. LeCroy Gallery through September 10.

Why do I never learn about these things in time?? That exhibit had better be touring, and it had better stop in Michigan

Sdtrk: ‘Wear your love like heaven’ by Masonna

Remember when I wrote a number of months ago about how Hiroshi Ishiguro, the ‘father’ of Repliee, my favouritest Gynoid in the world, said he was going to make an Android duplicate of himself? You don’t? Tch. Well anyway, he’s gone and done it. Meet Geminoid HI-1:

Left, Geminoid; right, Ishiguro-san

Meet the Remote-Control Self
Wired.com | By Tim Hornyak
12:00 PM Jul, 20, 2006 KYOTO, Japan — Hiroshi Ishiguro is a busy man. Between his two jobs, countless meetings and presentations, his demanding schedule was eating up all his time. So he built an android version of himself to pick up the slack.

Ishiguro, a senior researcher at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories outside Kyoto, has created a machine in his own image — a robot that looks and moves exactly like him. It sits on a chair and gazes around the room in a very humanlike fashion, just like its creator. In fact, the robot is an exact duplicate.

Ishiguro’s silicone-and-steel doppelgänger was made from casts taken from his own body. Powered by pressurized air and small actuators, it runs on semiautonomous motion programs.

It blinks and fidgets in its seat, moving its foot up and down restlessly, its shoulders rising gently as though it were breathing. These micromovements are so convincing that it’s hard to believe this is a machine — it seems more like a man wearing a rubber mask. But a living, breathing man.

But “Geminoid HI-1,” as the robot is called, has another trick up its sleeve.

“Everyone, thank you so much for coming today,” it says in polite but languid Japanese at an ATR demo Thursday, its lips moving to the sound. The voice is Ishiguro’s, broadcast through a speaker inside his android double.

Geminoid can be operated remotely so the robot reproduces the voice, posture and lip movements of Ishiguro, who wears a motion-capture system. A mouseclick raises a hand or finger.

Ishiguro, whose job is teaching at Osaka University, an hour’s drive away, designed Geminoid so he could “robot in” to his classes and skip the commute. As he steps out from behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz, standing beside his robot self, the shift is disconcerting.

“The idea is tele-interaction,” says Ishiguro, who is also head of the university’s Intelligent Robotics Laboratory. “If I access the android through the internet, I do not need to go to ATR anymore.”
the rest of the article is here

So he’s just lazy? Is that what he’s actually saying??
Seriously, that’s pretty fab. When he first mentioned that, I was thinking it’d take years for his Doppelgänger to be built, but I guess not. Then again, it might’ve been a case where he’d made that statement knowing that work on Geminoid was already underway. In any event, rather impressive! Of course, now I’m going to have to hunt down any and all videos with him..

Might I add here that ‘Geminoid’ is a very tokusatsu-y sounding name. I think Geminoid fought against Dimensional warrior Spielban in one episode, although I may be wrong.

Rock the hell on, Ishiguro-san! (Further info available at Tim Hornyak’s Loving the Machine)

Technorati tags: Hiroshi Ishiguro, Android, Repliee, Actroid, Gynoid, Geminoid

Sdtrk: ‘Kinky boots’ by Patrick Macnee & Honor Blackman

Speaking of Dolls — cos let’s face it, when am I not speaking of Dolls? — it seems that the Good People at 4woods have just released two new heads for their delicious A.I.NEO series. I approve!

Left, Sayoko; right, Chris

Both the Sayoko-chan and Chris models are just under 5’2″, weigh 66 lbs, and boast 34.24.35 as their measurements. Yum yum. Upon reflection, ‘delicious’ is too simple of an assesment…

It looks like 1st Personal Companion have come up with a new head to choose from as well..

Looks a bit like Rose Tyler, don’t you think?

This head type is called Kay. Or Tracy. I’m not entirely sure. Whatever her name is, I’m likin’ what I’m seein’, and she’s a pretty attractive collection to the other head types that 1st-PC already has available..

Also, the current fate of SynthCreations, makers of the gorgeous Mecadoll, is that they’ve undergone a couple of corporate changes, and is now My Party Doll.

She counted sitting and staring amongst her many hobbies

I’ll wait and see what manifests before I add them to the sidebar list of manufacturers, but it’s good to see they’re still afloat! More companies = more sexy silicone diversity, which is always ace.

Back to Japan, A NEW CHALLENGER APPEARS!! in the form of Honey Dolls, by Axis Japan. Hopefully not related to Haman Karn‘s Axis from Gundam, but I digress. I literally just saw these as I was writing this up, but at a cursory glance, they certainly attract. Especially the Honey3 model, pictured below. Mmm.

She seems… distracted

This company is definitely one to watch. (I’ve added these cats to the sidebar, as they have an actual finished website.) Apart from the swap-out-capable heads, the under 70 lb weight, and the tactile sensors embedded in each breast, what really gets my attention is the fact that these are the first Japanese-made Synthetiks since Chestnut co. Limited’s Rare-Borgs that feature mouths that you can open. I’m excited. Are you excited?

And finally, regarding Cruyff, makers of the Erie series of Synthetik companions: I once mentioned that the name sounds like a light and flaky pastry, but could they be possibly named after legendary Seventies-era Dutch footballer Johan Cruijff? After all, what’s another name for a love doll? That’s right… a Dutch wife