Robots will continue to pervade our e-Life

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP) Is it too early, at this time of year, to choose a Christmas gift for your daughter or your favorite niece? Maybe it is. And it seems that deciding on what to give her will not be as hard as it was in past years, provided this time around you can allocate about US$100 for her.

That much money will buy you a high-tech doll made by iRobot Corporation in cooperation with Hasbro. Why so much? Because it is no ordinary doll. Named My Real Baby, this doll is packed with electronic sensors and other small devices. It incorporates iRobot's Natural Response Technology and what the company calls animtronics.

Unlike the popular and also expensive Barbie dolls by Mattel, My Real Baby will smile at you, frown, show a surprised expression or close her eyes and go to sleep. She will also coo and laugh and burp. If you tickle her feet, she will giggle. Bounce her on your knee for as long as you like, and she will not protest. I was really impressed with her life-like expression, as you can see in the accompanying picture. I just wish that they had given her a prettier name than just My Real Baby.

Also incorporating artificial intelligence, the doll will "grow" and learn to speak baby language such as "mama" and "yum- yum" as it interacts with your child. This will create pleasant unpredictability that will make it difficult for your daughter or niece to get bored.

Your child can learn how to change the baby's diaper, give her milk and rock her to sleep. Child psychologists were involved in deciding which features the doll should have. So, for instance, the doll will not cry if you spank it, as you would not want to encourage your child to adopt such an approach to enforcing discipline.

My Real Baby was one of the main highlights at Acer's e-Life 2000 event at the company's Aspire Learning Complex in Lung Tan, Taiwan, early last month. iRobot Corporation, in Somerville, Massachusetts, is one of Acer's partners, while Hasbro is a major toy company from the U.S. I think My Real Baby will be a much sought-after toy by young girls (adults will like her, too), and she's slated to hit the shelves right in time for this year's Christmas fever.

Robots as toys are not new. Lego is another company that has been making robots for our youngsters. However, as you are reading this article, the first Workshop for Interactive Robotics and Entertainment 2000 (WIRE 2000) is underway at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. So, we can expect to see more and more robotic toys like My Real Baby in the future.

iRobot (www.iRobot.com), also known as IS Robotics and Real World Interface, was founded in 1990 by a professor from MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab, Rodney Books. Today, the company's list of customers includes the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency and the Office of Naval Research. And obviously making toys is not all that they do.

According to the Robotics Industry Association (RIA), the robot industry in general grew significantly last year, particularly in the industrial robotics segment. Throughout the year there was a total of 17,591 orders for robots, valued at US$1.4 billion, most of which were orders for spot welding, material handling, assembly and arc welding robots. RIA's executive vice president, Donald A. Vincent, said, "Spot-welding robot orders skyrocketed 102 percent, assembly robot orders jumped 100 percent, material handling was up 52 percent and arc welding grew 46 percent."

Japan is still the largest user of industrial robots, followed by the U.S. It is no surprise that Japanese companies, particularly Sony, have also been on the leading edge of robot technology.

Medical Treatment

Robots are not only for toys and entertainment. They are not limited to replacing human resources. Robots can serve various purposes, too. The All-Terrain Robot Vehicle manufactured by Real World Interface, for example, can be fitted for use in clearing land mines. But tiny robots can also be used in medical treatment, too.

A recent report in the Science journal, for example, showed how scientists from IBM Research in Zurich, together with scientists from the University of Basel, invented a method that would make it possible for nanorobots to help fight cancers.

The researchers found that silicon cantilevers can attract certain biomolecules. These cantilevers, which can be placed in an array like the teeth in a comb, can be bent by letting these biomolecules stick to them and create a surface stress. This mechanism can be used to activate micromachinery or nanovalves to release certain substances that would attack tumor growth in a patient's body. With this invention, no external source of power such as batteries will be needed. By the way, does this remind you of Fantastic Voyage?

Lately we have been inundated by so much news on Internet and dot.coms, we tend to forget there are other fields that are making substantial advances, too. In addition to their key roles in manufacturing industries, R&D and exploration, robots will increasingly keep us company in our daily life.

However, if you want to know what kind of problems erratic robots can cause, you would not have to actually go to a lab to see an experiment. Just watch how the drivers of Jakarta's city busses, minibuses and other public transportation vehicles behave on the street, and you will get some idea. (zatni@cbn.net.id)