We, robot: the future is here

In his own image ... deep down, Saya is still a robot.
Japanese society is embracing the new generation of robots to make people's lives easier at home and at work, writes Anthony Faiola.
Saya, a perky receptionist in a smart canary-yellow suit, beamed a smile from behind the "May I Help You?" sign on her desk, offering greetings and answering questions posed by visitors at a local university.
But when she failed to welcome a workman who had just walked by, a professor stormed up to her and dished out a harsh reprimand.
"You're so stupid!" said the professor, Hiroshi Kobayashi, towering over her desk.
"Eh?" she responded, her face wrinkling into a scowl. "I tell you, I am not stupid!"
The truth is, Saya isn't even human. But in a country where robots are changing the way people live, work, play and even love, that doesn't stop Saya the cyber-receptionist from defending herself from men who are out of line. With voice recognition technology allowing 700 verbal responses and an almost infinite number of facial expressions from joy to despair, surprise to rage, Saya may not be biological - but she is nobody's fool.
"I almost feel like she's a real person," said Kobayashi, an associate professor at the Tokyo University of Science and Saya's inventor. Having worked at the university for almost two years now, she's an old hand at her job. "She has a temper ... and she sometimes makes mistakes, especially when she has low energy," the professor said.
Saya's wrath is the latest sign of the rise of the robot. Analysts say Japan is leading the world in a new generation of consumer robots. The latest models, such as Saya, will be demonstrated at the World Expo opening just outside Nagoya on March 25.
Some scientists are calling the wave a technological force poised to change human lifestyles more radically than the advent of the personal computer or the mobile phone.
Though perhaps years away in other countries, this long-awaited, as-seen-on-TV world - think The Jetsons or Blade Runner - is beginning to unfold in Japan, with robots now used as receptionists, night watchmen, hospital workers, guides, pets and more.
The onslaught of new robots led Japan's Government to establish a committee to draw up safety guidelines for the keeping of robots in homes and offices.
But Japan's NEDO institute, which co-ordinates national science research and development, found it too hard to set a single standard to cover the many types of robots, Daily Yomiuri newspaper reported. The panel did check the design of robots "to ensure they would not harm humans" at the World Expo, the newspaper reported.
Safety is becoming a focus for domestic robot makers as interaction between machines and humans in the household becomes more common.
Sony's rollerskating humanoid robot
Officials compiled a report in January predicting that every household in Japan will own at least one robot by 2015, perhaps sooner.
Scientists and government authorities have dubbed 2005 the unofficial "year of the robot", with humans set to interact with their electronic spawn as never before at the expo.
At the 175-hectare site, 15 million visitors are expected to mingle with some of the most highly developed examples of Japanese artificial intelligence, many of which are on sale or will be within a year.
Greeting visitors in four languages and guiding them to their desired destinations will be Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' yellow midget robot, Wakamaru. A trio of humanoid robots by Sony, Toyota and Honda will dance and play musical instruments at the opening ceremony. Parents can leave their children in the care of a robotic babysitter - NEC's PaPeRo - which recognises individual children's faces and can notify parents by mobile phone in case of emergency.
Also on display: a wheelchair robot, being deployed by the southern city of Kitakyushu, that navigates traffic crossings and footpaths using a global positioning and integrated circuit chip system. In June, expo visitors can enter a robot room - a more distant vision of the future where, by 2020, merely speaking a word from your couch will open the refrigerator door, allowing your personal robot assistant to deliver the cold beverage of your choice.
"We have reached the point in Japan of a major breakthrough in the use of robot technology and our society is changing as a result," said Kazuya Abe, an official at NEDO. "People are and will be living alongside robots, which are seen here as more than just machines. This is all about AI [artificial intelligence], this is about the creation of something that is not human, but can be a complement or companion to humans in society. That future is happening here now."
While employing a measure of new technology, many such robots are envisioned merely as new interfaces - more user-friendly means of combining existing ways of accessing the internet or reaching loved ones through mobile phone networks.
In the quest for artificial intelligence, the United States is perhaps just as advanced as Japan. But the focus in the US has been largely on military applications. By contrast, the Japanese Government, academic institutions and corporations are investing billions of dollars on consumer robots aimed at altering everyday life, leading to an earlier dawn of what many in Japan call the "age of the robot".
But the robotic rush in Japan is also being driven by unique societal needs. Confronting a major depopulation problem due to a record low birthrate and its status as the nation with the longest lifespan on Earth, Japanese are fretting about who will staff the factory floors of the world's second-largest economy in the years ahead. Toyota, Japan's biggest car maker, has come up with one answer in moving to create a line of worker robots with human-like hands able to perform multiple sophisticated tasks.
With Japanese youth shying from so-called 3-K jobs - referring to the Japanese words for labor that is dirty, dangerous or physically taxing - Alsok, the nation's second-largest security guard company, has developed a line of robo-cops.
The guard robots, one version of which is being used by a client in southern Japan, can detect and thwart intruders using sensors and paint guns. They can also put out fires and spot water leaks.
It is perhaps no surprise that robots would find their first major foothold in Japan. Japanese dolls and toys, including a moving crab using clockwork technology dating to the 1800s, are considered by some to be among the first robots.
Rather than the monstrous Terminators of American movies, robots here are instead seen as gentle, even idealistic creatures epitomised by Astroboy, the 1960s Japanese cartoon about an electronic kid with a big heart.
"In Western countries, humanoid robots are still not very accepted, but they are in Japan," said Norihiro Hagita, director of the ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories in Keihanna Science City near Kyoto.
"One reason is religion. In Japanese [Shinto] religion, we believe that all things have gods within them. But in Western countries, most people believe in only one God. For us, however, a robot can have an energy all its own."
A case in point is the Paro - a robotic baby harp seal, developed with $12.6 million in government grants, that went on sale commercially this month for $4400 each. All 200 units sold out in less than 50 hours.
The seal is meant to provide therapy for the elderly who are filling Japanese nursing homes at an alarming rate while often falling prey to depression and loneliness.
With 30 sensors, the seal begins, over time, to recognise its master's voice and hand gestures. It coos and flaps its furry, white down in delight at gentle nuzzles, but squeals in anger when handled roughly.
Researchers have been testing the robot's effect on the elderly at a nursing home in Tsukuba, 65 kilometres from Tokyo. During a recent visit, the sad eyes of elderly residents lit up as the two resident robot seals were brought out.
Tests have shown the cute newcomers reduce stress and depression among the elderly. Just ask Sumi Kasuya, 89, who cradled a seal robot while singing it a lullaby on a recent afternoon.
"I have no grandchildren and my family does not come to see me very often," said Kasuya, clutching fast to the baby seal robot wiggling in her arms. "So I have her," she said, pointing to the seal. "She is so cute, and is always happy to see me."
with Akiko Yamamoto
The Washington Post

McCain: Iraq War Mismanaged for Years

By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press Writer:-

BLUFFTON, S.C. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history.
"We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement—that's the kindest word I can give you—of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war," the Arizona senator told an overflow crowd of more than 800 at a retirement community near Hilton Head Island, S.C. "The price is very, very heavy and I regret it enormously."
McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, complained that Rumsfeld never put enough troops on the ground to succeed in Iraq.
"I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history," McCain said to applause.
The comments were in sharp contrast to McCain's statement when Rumsfeld resigned in November, and failed to address the reality that President Bush is the commander in chief.
"While Secretary Rumsfeld and I have had our differences, he deserves Americans' respect and gratitude for his many years of public service," McCain said last year when Rumfeld stepped down.
On a two-day campaign swing in South Carolina, McCain fielded questions from the crowd for more than an hour and said the United States can succeed in Iraq with additional troops and a new strategy. McCain has been a strong proponent of using more troops and favors Bush's increase of some 21,500 U.S. forces in the nearly four-year-old war.
"I have been saying for 3 1/2 years that we would be in this sad situation and this critical situation we are in today," he said.
McCain's bid for president was sidetracked in South Carolina in 2000 after a victory in New Hampshire. George W. Bush won the primary here and went on to win the nomination and White House.
"In life, one of the worst things you can do is hold a grudge," he said. "I felt the important thing for me to do with my life was to move forward after we lost our race. You have seen other people who have lost who mire themselves in bitterness and self pity. That's not what my life is all about."
Some in the crowd were Bush supporters who have not yet decided on a 2008 candidate.
"It's too early to say," said Paul Baker, a retiree from Niagara Falls, N.Y., who has lived in South Carolina about four years. "I'm just going to wait it out and see what happens." Source