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Project Aiko | Femme bot or companion?
Posted by Jordana Mah, January 5, 2009 5:45 AM | Permalink
The holidays can make many of us feel lonely. In order to get through it, we all employ a variety of strategies, be it chumming around with other single friends, drowning ourselves in brandy and eggnog, or flying off to warmer climes and away from Christmas carols.
Some people though, take bigger action and inventor Le Trung is one of them. The Ontario inventor who lives with his parents, has poured all his savings and the recent years of his life creating Aiko, a female robotic companion.
Aiko, which literally translates to "love child" in Japanese, is an oddly realisitic looking robot designed to serve the elderly and help them with tasks such as reading and eating assistance, and can even remind them to wear a sweater when it's cold outside.
Although Trung admits that Aiko could potentially be redesigned for more "stimulating" activities, he insists his intentions are strictly benign, but some find his invention more disturbing than helpful. Is this the beginning of a future filled with friendly robot companions, or the heralding of an age where robots replace human affections? Too bad Aiko doesn't have a function to tell the future!
More : Project Aiko | (source) AsiaOne Digital | (source) Globe and Mail | See Aiko in action under the cut | Can a human love a robot? Can a robot love a human? Mechanical Love a documentary film by Phie Ambo
Check out this Youtube demonstrating Aiko's capabilities:
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Comments
Call me a creep but how can one's intentions be strictly benign with the construction of such an aesthetically pleasing robot... Get a dog I say.
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