Follow
Robots are not a thing of the future anymore, but a thing of our immediate present. This was proven many times before, as the science of robotics made incredible progress, not to mention that it keeps us guessing every day.
No matter if it’s about prototypes and models of future androids, or machines able to improve peoples’ health, robots start to become a constant part of our lives and this doesn’t even seem unusual anymore. This is why we weren’t surprised by Hitachi’s funny robot, recently unveiled in Tokyo two days ago.
Meet The Excellent Mobility And Interactive Existence As A Workmate Robot (EMIEW2 for short) android! The little bot is incredibly cute, although it can’t crack jokes like George Carlin.
But what is this all about? The EMIEW2 is a clever invention, we will give “him” that. According to the specialists interacting with the droid and describing its abilities,
He’s programmed to recognize key words to recognize questions he’s being asked and detect movements such as shoulder shrugs to detect comprehension or the lack of it on the part of the listener.
But EMIEW2 doesn’t only recognize shoulder shrugs, but nods too. It can answer questions and it can mock you for a little while. He was designed with a sense of humor and is meant to become a family’s favorite pet or a personal assistant. How does the humor work, you wonder?
During the demonstration organized in Tokyo on Tuesday, the device answered a reporter’s question on the number of people working at Hitachi. The droid said “We have two swans.” Of course, this puzzled deeply the interviewer, but EMIEW2 “understood” the person’s confusion and replied the interlocutor with “You got it? I’m kidding. We have about 800 people working here”. This means that the Hitachi engineers did their job right. The robot can pick up a series of human gestures and reactions and it can turn them into a funny conversation.
EMIEW2 has been “developed as part of Hitachi’s efforts to create a service robot with diverse communication functions that could safely coexist with humans while conducting necessary services.
The problem is that humans may not coexist in safety with the robot. Don’t get us wrong, this little fellow is adorable, but is so small, we fear some people might overlook it and harm it. EMIEW2 measures only 80 centimeters- (32 inch) in height. He is, however, easy to see, as it sports a bright combination of red and white colors and has its own motion system, provided by roller skates. So how great would it be to have Hitachi’s funny robot rolling around the house giving witty come-backs and having fun with the kids?
