Dobot Dog

[ramchop]

Sony showrooms in Ginza yesterday. NHK were there filming a delighted FG 2 yr old pointing at the latest release shouting with glee "Dobot Dog!".

They filmed him for at least 10 mins... but I have no idea when (or if) he'll make his Japanese TV debut.

Anyone got any clues as to a likely candidate (time/channel)? I'd hate to miss it.

[ramchop]

[Steve Bildermann]

See even NHK speaks PONGI.

[Taro Toporific]

See even NHK speaks PONGI.

And that was a official NHK Form Letter that was checked by dozens of crack TODAI grads and editors.

[ramchop]

OK, I saw him on TV last night. Just a half-second glimpse at the end of a program before the NHK 10pm news (I of course was watching London Hearts - and not a very good one).

Did anyone watch the programe on robots at 9pm last night? Was there much footage of a FG 2-yr old in a red shirt squealing in delighted awe at a robot dog?

I need a copy of this. Time to write another letter (oh joy! )

[ramchop]

12 Oct 2000

Sony's Corporate Senior Vice President Toshitada Doi too says, "At last, people will stop calling it a robot dog."

Guess you're wrong Dr Doi.

[ramchop]

[Taro Toporific]

OK, I saw him on TV last night. Just a half-second glimpse at the end of a program before the NHK 10pm news... squealing in delighted awe at a robot dog?

YIKES I saw it! I caught the same tail of the dog.



There's an online Email form for NHK TV but a real postal letter might be a better route. Better yet, put on a suit, pack a few dozen "Dr. Ramchop" meishi , walk up the hill to NHK TV in Shibuya, and don't take no for an answer. Ideally, you need figure out the name of the program director of the Dogbot sequence and demand a face-to-face. Alternatively, figure out the cute shinjin/OL/intern's name for the Dogbot sequence and lay on the Ramchop Charm.

[ramchop]

[Taro Toporific]

"...FG 2 yr old pointing at the latest release shouting with glee "Dobot Dog!"

VS

'Necot,' the robot's tentative name, is programmed to communicate via gestures or sound, and will go on sale next March for about 29,800 yen ($248.28).
Reuters - Jul 31 7:49 AM

[kurohinge1]

First there was "Dogbot". Then there came "Necot". Are "Husbot" and "Wifebot" next?

And does the Necot pee on you open luggage when you're about to leave for the airport, like the real thing?

[Taro Toporific]

First there was "Dogbot". Then there came "Necot". Are "Husbot" and "Wifebot" next?

"We're a cheap date."
THE OBSERVER
Artificial emotion
Boston Globe, 2/29/2004
Sherry Turkle is at it again. This Friday, she's hosting a daylong powwow at MIT to discuss "Evocative Objects."....Over the past two decades, the founder of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self has been watching how our relationships with machines, high tech and low tech, develop. Turkle is best known for her place at the table in any discussion of how computers -- and robots in particular -- will change our lives. ....
"The question is not what computers can do or what computers will be like in the future," she maintains, "but rather, what we will be like."....we become attached to sophisticated machines not for their smarts but their emotional reach. "They seduce us by asking for human nurturance, not intelligence," she says. "We're suckers not for realism but for relationships....
"We are very vulnerable to technology that knows how to push our buttons in a human way," she says. "We're a cheap date. Something makes eye contact with us and we cave hard. We'd better accept that about ourselves."
[/b]