Categories
Technology

Hiroaki Kitano's dream

Hiroaki Kitano is known for having created the robotic dog AIBO and for being one of the directors of the Sony Computer Science Lab in Tokyo. In the early 90s, Hiroaki Kitano dreamed about creating biped robots able to perform actions superior to human actions. Ambitious, but at the same time realistic, he started the development of the 4-legged robotic dog AIBO that was commercialized; and he continued with the development of QRIO also from Sony, that was the first biped robot in history able to run. The dream of Hiroaki Kitano was, and still is, to be able to create a humanoid robot that is able to surpass the motor skills of a human being by the year 2050.

Hiroaki Kitano
Hiroaki Kitano, considered the father of AIBO. Photo taken by Joi Ito.

It is not an easy task to do, you can’t do it on your own. Kitano Hiroaki and his colleagues at Sony Computer Science Lab came up with a great idea so that all the world could participate and keep the motivation during the development process of more and more advanced robots . They decided to create a Football World Cup played by teams in which players were robots, instead of humans. The final goal would be to be able to create a team of robotic footballers fully autonomous able to beat the best football team in the world by year 2050.

The first edition of the Robocup, the robotics world cup, was celebrated in Japan in 1997; 40 teams took part in it, almost all of them universities and Japanese companies. Last year more than 400 teams from more than 40 different countries competed in the championship. In Japan the Robocup is a well-known event for almost everybody, with widespread media following; some of the most important matches are broadcast on TV.

Aibos playing with a ball
AIBOs playing with a ball.

Robots that compete in the Robocup are completely autonomous. That is, during the competition no human is allowed to intervene remotely in the game. Robots decide by themselves in real-time the movements they will perform on the football pitch. To program a good artificial intelligence is key, even more important than having more advanced mechanical capabilities. To be able to win at the Robocup the human members of the teams should be able to know a lot about many disciplines: artificial intelligence, programming, maths, physics, mechanics, artificial vision, electronics, human anatomy, etc.

Miguel Universidad de Alicante Aibos
Miguel from the Universidad de Alicante at the Robocup 2005.

“At the beginning I thought in football because it is a game that is well understood by almost everybody and at the same time is complex enough to suppose a compelling challenge” said Kitano Hiroaki rambling about how the idea for a Robocup came up. Even though the Robocup looks like just a game, an expensive hobby of scientists and engineers from all over the world, and it could be that the goal of competing against humans could sound like a bit naive; the true purpose of the competitions is to increase the motivation to create better and better technology that has practical applications. For example, at the University of Tokyo a new surgeon robot is being developed using technology based on humanoid robots that competed at the Robocup in 2007. At Waseda University and Keio University rescue robots have been created that are already being used by Japanese firefighters; their first prototypes were originally developed to compete at the Robocup. These are only some of the examples of the advances achieved by universities all over the world thanks to the motivation needed to compete at the highest level at the Robocup.

Will robots be able to beat a human world cup champions? As of now the progress is good; there is still 40 years until the human vs robots game of the century.

Other posts about robots:

Categories
Technology

TweetUp Japan 2010

As Evan Williams, co-founder and CEO of Twitter has come one week to work here with us in Tokyo, we prepared a meeting of Twitter users in Japan. Evan is happy about our work with Twitter Japan; we are now one of the 10 most used Internet services in Japan beating Mixi and Facebook.

We had a great time during the TweetUp and we met a lot of popular Twitter users in Japan. Here are some pictures of the event:

tweetUp Japan 2010
Sara next to a Japanese user with a whale on the head.

tweetUp Japan 2010
The same photo from the other side.

tweetUp Japan 2010
This guy instead of having the Twitter whale on the head was wearing it on his shoulders.

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

tweetUp Japan 2010

Evan Williams and Hector Garcia
Evan Williams and I. Photo taken by Zuco

If you still want to see more photos of the event, you can find them on my Flickr.

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Categories
Technology

Doraemon inventions that have become a reality

The other day Carlos, Alain, Mayo and I went to visit a temporary exhibition that showed some inventions that Fujiko Fujio, Doraemon author, imagined decades ago while drawing his manga.

Most of the exhibition is centered around robotics advances in recent years that have allowed the creation of humanoid robots that can walk like Doraemon, who is a robot that came from the future.

The two main inventions in the exhibition are: the “Takecopter”, that although is much bigger than in the manga, is quite an achievement, as it’s the smallest helicopter in the world; and the “Invisibility cloak” that works quite well thanks to the “fixed” background that was set up.

Many of Doraemon inventions have become a reality but there’s still much work to do. The Doraemon invention that I would like to have the most is “どこでもドア” (the magic door) that allows you to teleport to any place in the world. Any Doraemon inventions that you would like to see become real?

If you are coming to Japan this summer, the exhibition will be open until the 27th of September in Miraikan, (Map).

Doraemon takecopters
Doraemon and Nobita flying with takecopters.

Doraemon takecopter
This is the closest thing to a takecopter we have been able to achieve. It is the smallest helicopter in the world, a GEN H4.

Doraemon Gen H4
More information about the Gen H4 helicopter in the official website of Gen Corporation.


If you want to buy it, you can do it here. It costs 67,000 euros/85,000 dollars.

Doraemon invisibility cloak
Invisibility cloak.

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon
I tried for the first time a machine that can read my brain waves. Quite interesting to see how they change depending of what you’re thinking about or what you are doing. For example, I tried reading Japanese with the sensors attached to my head and immediately the frequency of beta and gamma waves went up.

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon artificial plants
This kid is playing with artificial plants that react to environment changes.

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon
Alain testing a mysterious chair.

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon

Doraemon
Trying to look like Doraemon.

Doraemon