Blogs >> Technology >>
Robot technology in japan
Every time I go to Costco, I see these little round discs--Roombas--that can clean your floors. Pretty impressive, especially for someone who is not a good housekeeper by nature. Well, these little "creatures"--really robots made by a company called iRobot--are probably the wave of the future.
I think that I have probably discussed this issue on my blog before, but it keeps coming up and up on the news; thus, I can't help but go back to it. More and more, robot technology is really becoming the norm in more and more societies. More particularly, Japan seems to be taking the lead in this regard. This morning I came across an article which highlighted this increasing dependence on robots as the Japanese population becomes older and older. Here are a few excerpts from the article:
Besides financial and technological power, the robot wave is favored by the Japanese mind-set as well.
Robots have long been portrayed as friendly helpers in Japanese popular culture, a far cry from the often rebellious and violent machines that often inhabit Western science fiction.
This is, after all, the country that invented Tamagotchi, the hand-held mechanical pets that captivated the children of the world.
Japanese are also more accepting of robots because the native Shinto religion often blurs boundaries between the animate and inanimate, experts say. To the Japanese psyche, the idea of a humanoid robot with feelings doesn't feel as creepy — or as threatening — as it might do in other cultures.
So, it seems that the Japanese fascination with robots may have something to do with the cultural peculiarities of the nation.
One another thing that I got from this article was that the more robots resemble, the mroe they will be accepted by us:
For Hiroshi Ishiguro, also at Osaka University, the key is to make robots that look like human beings. His Geminoid robot looks uncannily like himself — down to the black, wiry hair and slight tan.
I think that I have probably discussed this issue on my blog before, but it keeps coming up and up on the news; thus, I can't help but go back to it. More and more, robot technology is really becoming the norm in more and more societies. More particularly, Japan seems to be taking the lead in this regard. This morning I came across an article which highlighted this increasing dependence on robots as the Japanese population becomes older and older. Here are a few excerpts from the article:
Besides financial and technological power, the robot wave is favored by the Japanese mind-set as well.
Robots have long been portrayed as friendly helpers in Japanese popular culture, a far cry from the often rebellious and violent machines that often inhabit Western science fiction.
This is, after all, the country that invented Tamagotchi, the hand-held mechanical pets that captivated the children of the world.
Japanese are also more accepting of robots because the native Shinto religion often blurs boundaries between the animate and inanimate, experts say. To the Japanese psyche, the idea of a humanoid robot with feelings doesn't feel as creepy — or as threatening — as it might do in other cultures.
So, it seems that the Japanese fascination with robots may have something to do with the cultural peculiarities of the nation.
One another thing that I got from this article was that the more robots resemble, the mroe they will be accepted by us:
For Hiroshi Ishiguro, also at Osaka University, the key is to make robots that look like human beings. His Geminoid robot looks uncannily like himself — down to the black, wiry hair and slight tan.
"In the end, we don't want to interact with machines or computers. We want to interact with technology in a human way so it's natural and valid to try to make robots look like us," he said.
"One day, they will live among us," Ishiguro said. "Then you'd have to ask me: 'Are you human? Or a robot?'"
|
|
