How come the Japanese are so much ahead of us in consumer robotic technology?
latigerlilly
Posts: 114
Go to www.youtube.com and search for "japanese robot" and you will see some amazing stuff. They had a "wheelchair" that can walk up an down stairs on legs. Judging from all the reporters crowding around it, it is sadly probably only an experimental model that is a prototype only and not commercially available. They had robots that look just like real people and real cats. They even had the ultimate boys' toy, an enormous At-At or "Land Walker" complete with rocket launcher and machine guns. According to www.androidworld.com/ , there are 40 anthropomorphic robot projects in Japan but only 10 such projects in the USA. Maybe all the American roboticists are off making killerbots. Just like how the Japanese almost crushed us in the 1970s with their small cars and electronics, they will probably crush us with their consumer robots. I went to Japan once on a family vacation with my family. All the hotels we stayed in had an electronic toilet/bidet. Some of them even automatically lifted the toilet seat cover by itself if it's moton sensors sensed you. In contrast, we stayed in the Frontier hotel in Las Vegas and the plumbing didn't even work. It was clogged and sh*t sprayed everywhere. I don't know about you, but in economics I learned that you have to choose between guns and butter. I'd rather be buttered up like the Japanese than be wallowing in guns like we are now. Anyways, I just wanted to share an interesting link with you guys. Enjoy the show!
Comments
PAR
Japanese industry and culture looks at long term benifits. They, on a corporate and personal level, will invest money into projects that have no short term return (like robot research and development). Here in the good old US of A, we are more focused on what decisions will drive tomorrows stock prices. As a result, long term R&D, or R&D into technology that is "useless" in the short term (like a bibed robot), is hard to come by, and tends to take place at Universities. Even in the University arena, there is more and more emphasis on what can generate licensing fees, so getting money for this type of research is getting harder all the time.
"Eastern" philosophy and culture provides a better culture for this kind of research, because they can see in the long term that it will be useful.
Yes, we will be (are) playing catchup.
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John R.
8 + 8 = 10
I recently got a friend of mine back into electronics after he hadn't done any for many years. When he was young he had had a junk box and done electronics in his home, but he said that when he reached middle school the peer pressure was on him so much to participate in athletics, play basketball, and to not do "nerdy stuff" that he let his electronics skills fall by the wayside even though it was what he felt he really wanted to be doing.
I would not under estimate that. They seem to truly enjoy making robots do things.
Look what happened when Chip spent his time doing what he truly enjoys, A Propeller chip!
Speaking of robots I really need to get me one of those chips.
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- - - PLJack - - -
Perfection in design is not achieved when there is nothing left to add.
It is achieved when there is nothing left to take away.
Post Edited (PLJack) : 2/1/2007 10:54:28 PM GMT
That's concerning their culture...
As far as the progress they made I'll set you a simple example which is more common (in the everyday life)....
I remember that Japan had far more health centers (well I mean special health centers but I can't remember weather they were for cancer or heart diseases) when America had ONLY 3...
What have you got to say about that gentleman?!?!?!
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-Rule your Destiny-
--Be Good. Be Bad. Be Provas--
The hellinic (Greek) robots portal: Greekbotics
Many Projects and Schematics by the users·and also robotic news
(Translate using babelfish)
When I went to Japan, another thing I noticed was how clean everything was. It's as if they're all perfectionist. They probably worship "Monk" on T.V. At the grocery store, instead of selling a pile of oranges, they had each orange waxed, polished, and placed in individual padded cells.
You go to a supermarket in the USA and request a sample of food and they will just simply hand it to you. In Japan, they will spritz their hand with a disinfectant before handing it to you.
Of course, all these perfectly polished, organic, greenhouse grown perfect fruits and vegetables come at a price. I thought the price tag was wrong at the supermarket so I asked the tour guide. He said that it was correct. A watermelon costs 10,000.00 yen in Japan. That's 100 USD!!! Getting a fruit basket as a gift in Japan is considered the ultimate gift. It is an "honorable" gift that people aspire to give and receive.
Just about the only things that are of equal or lower price than USA prices in Japan are sushi (same prices as USA), premium quality organic rice, and chicken breasts (Japanese hate breasts, but adore black meat such as thighs). Basically, if you don't like fish, rice, chicken breasts, pickled vegetables, and salty/sour plum preserves, then you'd have to be a millionaire to live in Japan.
I had a thought while I was there. You can probably get really rich if you were to smuggle Texas watermelons to Japan! In Texas, watermelons go for $1-8 each, depending on size and quality. In Japan, they go for $100 each. So, if you figure in shipping costs, the profit margin is approximately 10 times. Who the hell wants to smuggle dope when you can smuggle watermelons to Japan!
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-Rule your Destiny-
--Be Good. Be Bad. Be Provas--
The hellinic (Greek) robots portal: Greekbotics
Many Projects and Schematics by the users·and also robotic news
(Translate using babelfish)
Could it be that Japan also has a baby-boomer generation that is getting older? That generation controls the wealth, thus the direction of . . . everything in the country. Plus, Japan's birthrate is an anemic 9.47 per 1000 population while the USA's is 14.47 per 1000 population. What this really means is that in a wealthy,·industrialized country--which both Japan and the USA are--is that publicly-funded social programs for the elderly are much easier to support in the United States than in Japan. THEREFORE, the Japanese concentrate on technology to ease their lives as they age.
The folks that are in REAL trouble are the Germans, with a birthrate of 8.33 per 1000. This means they will have trouble maintaining their essentially socialist economy in the future. Does this sound ominous? On both fronts?
Makes sense, but I have NO CLUE if it is correct.
--Bill
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You are what you write.
Japanese are really somewhat special to Asia due to their ability to create an isolated homeland. For instance, they love excellence and admire any culture that pursues it, have a very wry sense of humor about themselves, have a traditional culture of seeing spirits in inannimate objects, and the good luck to have appreciated miniturization long before the space race. And above all, they are some of the world's greatest consumers that have to just have whatever is odd and new.
At some point there is a paradox in that educated people throughout the world have less children. This means that the technological and educated leaders of the world are in a dwindling minority. The uneducated masses have large families and breed their own turmoil and poverty.
I cannot say where it is all going. It seems to be metaphysical and somewhat akin to karma. Nonetheless, Nike shoes would never have gotten started without the Japanese being first in partnership with Bill Bowerman to start Adidas [noparse][[/noparse]his first shoe company] as Americans are more into protecting market share and abhore a newcomer. I suspect Europe is the same way.
In other words, if you really need to bring a new idea to the world; it is much easier to find companies willing to risk and innovate in Japan. In the case of robots, it really is culturally atractive to their mythology and national pride. I also admire that they were willing to provide a home to the United Nations Unversity when the U.S.A. claimed that such a project would be a complete waste of money. Today, it is a haven of cross-cultural studies and appeals directly to universal tolerance.
Admitaby, there are some things Japanese that I would never accept because I am a fourth generation American; they do a lot that the world can learn from.
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"If you want more fiber, eat the package.· Not enough?· Eat the manual."········
i saw a device dean kamden designed and made in like 1998 that carries handicapped people up and down stairs, and lifts them to eye level.. think 3 segways on some crazy rocker-gimbal assembly, or something..
so, that product IS on the market. very expensive, but it has been carryingb wealthy handicapped people up and down stairs for years, i gather. it can even lift them up to an appropriate level to get into most kitchen cupboards..
but really, we are ignoring personal robotics unless it is for toys..
our personal robots are for the army.. they arent even robots.. they are glorified RC cars with robot arms on them(not robot arms, telecontrolled RC arms)....
so, thats cool. we can blow stuff up!
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3D & 2D Design - Technical Documentation
www.robertguyser.com
I didn't know that Dean Kamen invented such a super-duper wheelchair. I only know him as the guy who invented the Segway and the insulin pump. I did a Google search and found out that the device that RGuyser described is the IBot. All I can say is, "Wow!" Here is a link to the IBot website www.ibotnow.com/ibot/index.html . Watch the videos on the website guys. The IBot is truly impressive.
Enjoy,
Lilly.
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Paul Baker
Propeller Applications Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=467912
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
I am the Chief Information Officer of a college. I also hold the title of Dean of the College Library. The college is a·public institution. Obviously, to us censorship is bad. VERY bad.
However, this forum is not public. Parallax, a private corporation, owns it. As an acknowledged expert in the subject of censorship, I say you can do anything you want. (Bless you my son and may the Force be with you.) Also, it doesn't bother me a bit . . . it is just the way it is. Plus, I am a big ol' boy. (And, one of my incredibly brilliant posts--I can't remember which one; it was that good--was one of the group you deleted.)
(If my librarians knew I justified censorship, even in a private setting, they would go, like, MENTAL.)
--Bill; Master of Time, Space, and Dimension (if anyone knows who said that, you are at least as old as me. I am sorry.)
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You are what you write.
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Paul Baker
Propeller Applications Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
long live the censor..
i actually agree that the bomb argument part was absurd and misplaced..
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3D & 2D Design - Technical Documentation
www.robertguyser.com
Post Edited (RGuyser) : 2/13/2007 8:53:37 AM GMT
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