GetRobo

Honda uses ASIMO technology for rehab equipment

Honda exhibited a new type of walking support equipment that it has developed utilizing technologies on its ASIMO at the International Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition in Tokyo, according to ROBONABLE. I am borrowing the photo from this site.

 

According to this article, you strap the gadget on your hip and legs and the sensors will pick up how you walk so that the motors can aid you when walking. The equipment is a sample exhibit and there is no information about commercialization in this story.

New robot dog from Sega Toys

Sega Toys announced a new robot toy called MIO. I would say that the concept is similar to the Tamagotchi but in a more idog form. The new MIO can show 17 different kinds of emotions by the shape of its pupil which can change into more than 100 variations. A bone-shaped pupil means that it is hungry and if you feed him the bone (which comes as an accessory) he will become happy or love you etc. You can pet it to make it happy and when happy it can start walking too.

MIO is specifically targeted toward "elementary school age girls." Price is 9,240 yen including tax - about $80 - and Sega Toys aims to sell 100,000 of these per year.

A robot controlled by "telepathy" - or it looks like it

I found out through this article on ROBOT WATCH about a small company in Hiroshima Prefecture called Oisaka Development Ltd. The article is a report from the exhibition floor at the recently-held  Robotics Society of Japan's annual conference, but this company has developed a high-precision electromyograph.

Scroll down the article and toward the end you'll find a video right next to this photo and click the blue letters that says [動画3]. You'll see a video of a humanoid that is being manipulated by a man. The man is wearing a high-precision EMG sensor and is sending motion commands wirelessly to the robot. It looks a bit like controlling the robot with telepathy, doesn't it?

I wonder if Oisaka's Personal-EMG system is being used in exoskeletons such as HAL.........