Metalsexy!
typed for your pleasure on 16 March 2009, at 4.36 pmSdtrk: ‘Love everlasting’ by Jeremy Jay
Fellow Technosexuals, our goal of walking, talking Synthetik partners is looming nearer. I give you: the first walking Gynoid of the twenty-first century. Yes.
Walking, talking female robot to hit Japan catwalk
The Associated Press | Published: March 16, 2009TSUKUBA, Japan: A new walking, talking robot from Japan has a female face that can smile and has trimmed down to 43 kilograms (95 pounds) to make a debut at a fashion show. But it still hasn’t cleared safety standards required to share the catwalk with human models.
Developers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, a government-backed organization, said their “cybernetic human,” shown Monday, wasn’t ready to help with daily chores or work side by side with people — as many hope robots will be able to do in the future.
“Technologically, it hasn’t reached that level,” said Hirohisa Hirukawa, one of the robot’s developers. “Even as a fashion model, people in the industry told us she was short and had a rather ordinary figure.”
For now, the 158 centimeter (62.2 inch) tall black-haired robot code-named HRP-4C — whose predecessor had weighed 58 kilograms (128 pounds) — will mainly serve to draw and entertain crowds.
Developers said the robot may be used in amusement parks or to perform simulations of human movement, as an exercise instructor, for instance.
HRP-4C was designed to look like an average Japanese woman, although its silver-and-black body recalls a space suit. It will appear in a Tokyo fashion show — without any clothes — in a special section just for the robot next week.
The robotic framework for the HRP-4C, without the face and other coverings, will go on sale for about 20 million yen ($200,000) each, and its programming technology will be made public so other people can come up with fun moves for the robot, the scientists said.
the rest of the article is here
Her programming technology will be made public, so other people can come up with fun moves for her. Well. *adjusts collar*
As I am genuinely speechless with glee, let’s gaze at a few pics of HRP-4C, shall we?
Sexiness: CONFIRMED
Full videos are of course available on Robot Watch; simply look for any pictures with the 動画 kanji beneath them, right-click the characters, and save. They’ve a passel of pictures there as well. You can also check out the page pertaining to her on AIST’s website, if you feel like wading through a bit more kanji. Sure, why the hell not, right?
Very good job, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology! Although she still has a couple of standards to meet — such as having an actual name, and not looking like she’s shat her keks when she walks — you’ve definitely raised the bar on contemporary Gynoid production. Nice! And one of the best things about the project? It’s government-funded! How fantastic is that??
So Kokoro Co. Ltd, Beijing Yuanda Super Robot Technology Co., Ltd., Hong Kong Human-Robot Center, Kobalabs, and Baeg Moon-hong, you certainly aren’t going to take this development lying down, are you?
Technorati tags: Technosexuals, robots, Androids, Gynoids, HRP-4C, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, AIST, Kokoro Co. Ltd., Beijing Yuanda Super Robot Technology Co., Ltd., Hong Kong Human-Robot Center, Kobayashi Labs, Baeg Moon-hong
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March 16th, 2009 at 5.46 pm
Impressive!
March 17th, 2009 at 11.52 am
WOW. I’m floored. She’s beautiful.
It creeps me out that they refer to her as “it”.
Her hands crack me up. They are so big. But the fact that they got her weight down that low and that she can stand and walk is so amazing. Of course it’s the Japanese. Of course. WOW.
I think my favorite part is that they are making her open source. Y’all programmers get to workin’!
March 17th, 2009 at 5.48 pm
Kat –
I would agree! HRP-4C will probably be even more impressive once they have her strutting sexily down the catwalk next week. When they post pics, I’ll post pics. 🙂
Alice –
She is gorgeous, isn’t she? Apart from those hands. They’re feminine, but a wee bit out-of-scale with the rest of her. Of course, I’m thinking, if her face and hands are ‘bare’, why not her feet? But I would say that. 😉
I’d completely agree that it’s disconcerting that they refer to her as an ‘it’. It kinda says something about an observer when they refer to a robot in a clearly female (or male, for that matter) humanoid form as an ‘it’. Technosexuals are always accused of objectifying people, but we’re really all about personifying objects, as you’re well aware. The sooner (Organik) people can view Androids and Gynoids as (Synthetik) people as well, then each will benefit from learning something from the other.
But yeah, she’s really a cutie! And did you see her ‘bedroom eyes‘ look? Mmm.
Okay, Shi-chan’s glaring at me, so I have to go now…
March 20th, 2009 at 11.33 pm
I think she looks very cool, although her proportions seem more childlike than feminine.
She makes me remember the flashbacks The Major in Ghost in the Shell has of her childhood as one of the first full prosthetics…
March 21st, 2009 at 4.27 pm
Yeah, HRP-4C has a deceptive body; in some pics, she looks rather small, but seeing her in videos, she appears… older than the pictures. Personally, I think the best way to address that would be to give her longer hair, down to maybe like her shoulderblades. And artificial skin covering her whole body. Mm hmm. 🙂
You will be particularly pleased to hear she runs Linux!
March 26th, 2009 at 5.29 am
I can’t imagine you haven’t been following Battlestar Galactica (which features loads of lovely gynoids and ANDR-oids for us ladies, and a few organic-synthetic hybrids of different types)
But (since you didn’t mention it) this steppin’ lady was featured in the series finale montage, (along with Actroid, and a few cuter types) with a bit of semiserious message as the plot blurred into the real world, about how Earth folks have a chance to break the cycle of staple-scifi-fare robot vs human crankiness and warfare.
Fancy stuff!
March 26th, 2009 at 12.54 pm
gwenbasil –
Hi there! 🙂
People had asked me at various points, ‘OMG DAVECAT WHY ARE YOU NOT WATCHING BATTLESTAR GALACTICUP IT’S GOT GYNOIDS EVERYWHERE AND I HERD U LIEK THEM’, and I just never sat down to watch it. It’s not that I’m opposed to the idea, but… have you seen the list of stuff that I have yet to watch? You’re familiar with the distance between the Earth and the Sun? My list is slightly longer than that. 🙂
When my friend Mari was over last Friday, she’d mentioned that the Robot station Emcee version of Actroid was in the montage at the end. I nodded approvingly.
Most western scifi has that whole hangup of ‘robots will be the End of All Flesh’, which I find kinda silly. But it ties in with the mindset over here. You of course have to ask yourself, what came first — Americans being afraid of robots and that fear being reflected in the media, or the media making out machines as The Enemy, and Americans watching the Terminator series and accepting it as fact? Hrrm…
I mean come on, people, robots are Good! Plus, if we do finally get round to exploring space, you’d think we’d want robots on our side, cos we’d need all the help we can possibly get! Especially if we’re trying to find our ancestral home… a shining planet known as… EARTH.
Thanks for dropping a line, New Visitor! Stick around and become an Old Visitor. 🙂
March 26th, 2009 at 1.04 pm
Nah, actually I’m an Old Lurker. 😀 Our interests synch up at a bunch of interesting points, commenting usually always seems a bit stalkerish though.
I try pretty hard to not do 30 backflips trying to sell random people on [whatever niche market media I like at the moment], and it had its ups and downs as a tv show, but I always expected an “Any Synthetiks Related News?” Post that says something like: People Magazine Confirms — sleeping with robots is mainstream! As long as they look exactly like catwalk models, no metaly bits. And you have a existential identity crisis after.
😛
ta ta
March 27th, 2009 at 12.33 pm
‘Post that says something like: People Magazine Confirms — sleeping with robots is mainstream!’
One day, gwenbasil, one day. 🙂