Any Synthetiks-related news, Davecat? (May 06)

typed for your pleasure on 4 May 2006, at 3.08 pm

Sdtrk: ‘Paul cries’ by Think about life

I know, I know, I’m early. I’ll tell you, I was originally going to wait until the 17th of this month to start posting again, but I got bored. Doesn’t that sound crazy?
But the other reason was that I found a couple of things rather relevant to my interests, such as EveR-1, Korea’s answer to Actroid-chan:

EveR-1, a combination of Eve and robot, looks just like a Korean female in her early 20s including her shape that is benchmarked against the nation’s model. [..]“For now, EveR-1 can be employed as a guide robot at museums and department stores or as an educational model to read books to children,” Baeg said.

“But we are looking further ahead _ we are working on upgrading the android with the aim of making it move its legs by the end of this year. It will be able to sit down and stand up by then,” he expects.
the complete article is here

EveR-1 — apparently pronounced like ‘Beaver One’ — is looking rather tasty. And they’re planning on making her legs move as well? Naturally, my question is — how sexy will her feet look? Naturally, I’m on the lookout for additional pics and videos, so keep an eye peeled (sounds painful).
And y’know, if I see someone write ‘silicon’ for ‘silicone’ or vice versa, I’m gonna spit. Silicone with an E is squishy (think boobs); silicon without the E is hard (think circuit boards). Honestly, people — pay attention.

Also, the May 2006 issue of Scientific American sports a new article concerning Actroid-chan. You heard it here first! Well, second. Well, you heard about the article here first. Stop arguing with me, and read the bloody thing.

One key strategy in Ishiguro’s approach is to model robots on real people. He began research four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter, casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its few actuator mechanisms resulted in jerky, unnatural motion. With Tokyo-based robotics maker Kokoro Company, Ishiguro built Repliee also by “copying” a real person–NHK TV newscaster Ayako Fujii–with shape-memory silicone rubber and plaster molds. Polyurethane and a five-millimeter-thick silicone skin, soft and specially colored, cover a metal skeleton. Given clothing, a wig and lipstick, it is a near mirror image of Fujii.
the rest of the article is here

See, I was completely unaware that Actroid-chan was based off an Organik lass! Well, I never.
For those of you further intrigued — which is all of you, right? — I’ve got a couple of pertinent videos uploaded on my YouTube page, one of which is Ishiguro-san himself going on at length about what he hopes to achieve with the Repliee projects.

Not too shabby, Ishiguro-san! Now get back to work. You’re up against the Koreans now, mate

Technorati tags: Actroid, Repliee, EveR-1, Gynoid, Hiroshi Ishiguro

Random similar posts, for more timewasting:

Any Synthetiks-related news, Davecat? (July 2014): Part II on July 30th, 2014

But will she need a TelePrompTer? on June 12th, 2005

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