From: Damien Broderick (thespike@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Dec 22 2002 - 21:41:22 MST
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/22/1040510966660.html
Sony soon to deliver child robot
By Sue Lowe
December 23 2002
Not sure you want children? By the middle of next year, hesitant couples
with a spare $[AUS]80,000 may be able to have a trial run with a child-like
robot.
Flush with the worldwide success of its Aibo robotic dog, Japanese
technology giant Sony is working on a 60-centimetre humanoid robot. It says
the Sony Dream Robot, SDR4X, would cost between $60,000 and $80,000.
Like the Aibo dog, SDR4X can interact with its "carers", expressing emotions
through a combination of words, songs and body language. It can recognise up
to 10 human faces and voices and adapt its behaviour according to the way it
is treated.
April 7 is tipped as a possible launch date. That is the day that AstroBoy,
the wide-eyed, rocket-powered, robot-boy of 1960s Japanese comic fame, was
supposedly born.
Car maker Honda also has an advanced prototype of a humanoid robot, dubbed
Asimo, who is now used to help sell cars in Honda's main Tokyo showroom.
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