Robots invading by Claudia Sonea

Why are we playing with technology? Beats me, but Japan is leader in this area and the robots they create are unique and tend to be more and more intriguing. The bad part is that they start to replace more and more people at work, like there was already a high rate of unemployment. The latest desire is to create robots capable of expressing human emotions. In Japan robots do all kind of works, even cook sushi or plant rice. Due to the fact that 65 percent of the population is elderly, Japanese government is trying to fill the gap of the working force with robots and it is for no surprise that funded all kind of projects and related efforts- nearly $10 million between 2006 and 2010, but with high expectations to return in great earnings. Also the Japanese people have their mind set on this kind of creation, how you could observe from their anime cartoons. The robots are natural seen even by the Japanese culture and they are just as well a revolution in the industry, where Japan leads with over 370,000 robots registered as working in 2005. Eimei Onaga, CEO of Innovation Matrix Inc., a company that distributes Japanese robotics technology in the U.S. promotes robots as increasing productivity and be less expensive by comparison to the labor force, but for the US economy in danger of recession it would not be a good idea. In Japan you could find robots working in hospitals (Wakamatsu, 190 miles north of Tokyo), as receptionists, home helpers, and so on and so forth. They expect for robots to become 15 percent of the Japanese work force and they try to improve it. For example Junichi Takeno of Meiji University together with his other colleagues created a rubbery robot face that would present six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust. At Osaka University they are developing a child-robot to mimic the emotions of a child. From the famous Tamagotchi to robots replacing human workers, the Japanese have long evolved and their interest seem to head that way, but they might be banging against the high price of such a creation like Sony and its dog-robot Aibu. Stay connected and see the development, but be careful while you are not paying attention you might hit the sack and be replaced by a gizmo like those presented above.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080302/ap_on_sc/japan_robot_nation;_ylt=Avbc1UlzKEh56ZTlocnRE7Ss0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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