robosapien

ROBOSAPIEN

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A female 'bot' will be launched next year, Tilden said.

The scientist, who was making the rounds at COMDEX yesterday, refused to divulge the entire technology behind his robot. Tilden, however, said he was using analog transistors to make his toy respond to the world around him.

REFERENCE: http://www.etaiwannews.com/Business/2003/11/22/1069466565.htm

The next-generation Robo Sapien will also have new functions, said Tilden, adding that his planned "fem-bot" will be able to comb its hair. "She can also do simple tasks like combing her owner's hair," he said. "Unlike boys, girls like to interact with their toys."

"He grunts and ... grunts some more," said Tilden. "The female version will speak that language too except that her voice will be softer. I will also design her in such a way that she will be able to order the male Robo Sapiens around."

"This is the first autonomous robot peripheral, and unlike its Japanese peers, this toy is reasonably priced," Tilden said. His 14-inch tall Robo Sapien, which retails for US$100, is battery-powered. Its battery life is approximately 20 hours, he said.

Speech recognition software will also be added to his "fem-bot."

"As you can see, Robo Sapien is like a football player and a spaceman rolled into one," he said. (The toy wears a helmet and a spaceman costume.) "Its female version will have long, blonde hair and big, expressive eyes. She will also have life-like hands."

As far as conversing with people is concerned, the robot will also speak Robo Sapien's language: "International caveman."

"It's still dumb but it can do a lot of high-precision gestures," he continued, adding that he built Robo Sapien in just nine months. "I also know for a fact that Robo Sapien is the first robot in two decades that does not carry a gun or a weapon of some kind."

"She will know the distinction between screaming and cooing, and she will know how to respond to those sounds," he said. "Oh, next year will be a big year for robots."

He's called Robosapien and he's the knee-high creation of Mark Tilden, a Canadian scientist who designed robots to explore planets and dig up landmines for the US government. Now Tilden is one of five scientists tinkering in the back rooms of WowWee, a small Hong Kong toy company with big Ideas.

That's been enough to endear him to 20,000 Britons who took him home for 80 (HK$1,140) each during the past two weeks. Make way because three million more are coming into the world and they will arrive in Hong Kong stores later this month.

by Zach Coleman

This guy is moving into your home. Don't worry, he doesn't eat much.

What he does is walk, dance, kick, lift, throw, listen, feel and grunt. Especially grunt.

``Robotics was the last unfulfilled promise of the 20th century,'' said Tilden. ``It's now 2004. Where's the robot that picks up my socks?''

Tilden's answer, of course, is Robosapien. The robust 'bot comes with a bulky 21-button remote control that can be used to perform 67 named functions and 28 hidden ones. It can respond to new commands from those who can program the controls.

Tilden's robot recaptures energy as it moves, and can run for up to 20 hours on four D-size batteries. A set of visual sensors were stripped off the little fellow by overwhelmed distributors who couldn't cope with the robot's existing functions. But the sturdy robot can take falls and kicks in its stride. In the UK, Tilden said, only 0.3 per cent of buyers have returned the product to retailers citing difficulty, compared with 3-5 per cent for the average device. WowWee has kept a low profile for much of its 22 years in business, but yesterday held its first Hong Kong press conference to show off Robosapien and other products.

Robosapien first debuted at a toy show in New York last year and he wowed some of the biggest buyers around.

Retail electronics giant Best Buy has an exclusive on sales in the US, sending Robosapien marching off for US$99.99 (HK$779). The Sharper Image, Macy's and other retailers will take shipments soon. Sales in Hong Kong through distributor Daniel & Co are set to start later this month at the suggested price of HK$699 in toy and department stores.

By comparison Aibo, Sony's robot dog, starts at US$599. Tilden said: ``For the cost of one robot dog, you can buy a robot army.'

Peter Yanofsky, WowWee's president and co-founder, saw Tilden on a Discovery Channel special and hired him as a consultant. Yanofsky and his brother Robert sold WowWee to US toy giant Hasbro in 2000, but the two organisations never meshed and last year Hasbro yielded control.

Tilden, a tinkerer since age 3, happily highlights ways buyers can modify Robosapien with their extra devices such as a miniature camera.

WowWee deliberately weakened the grip of 36-centimetre high Robosapien to avoid any dangerous encounters with infants. Tilden said it can lift 500 grams.

Later this year, WowWee plans to introduce a range of colours and accessories as well as software so that owners can control and program Robosapien using any device with an infrared controller, including many PDAs, laptops and mobile phones.

WowWee produces the robot in Guangdong. Tilden is confident that the physics behind the robot that he spent 16 years designing will keep copycats at bay at least until next year.

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