There are million different angles to discuss here, but by far the most interesting idea is a gradual, mutual, acquisitional merger – the pending-yet-not-far-off arrival of homeostasis between biological and mechanical life.
Japan’s NHK has developed a subtly robotic virtual reality interface (that actually virtualizes the non-real), and Honda has released 100 of it’s subtly robotic assistive devices into Japanese medical institutions; Subtle robotics moves, exciting robotics potential.
When a giant Japanese company that makes robots starts collaborating with a giant Japanese company that makes houses at the same time the Japanese government begins funding public robotics, awesomeness seems likely to follow.
THIS WEEK’S DISPATCH: Anthrobotic teams up with Akihabara News to feed the JTFF, now an Akihabara News feature, back to Anthrobotic.com, and also a Japanese trailer for Pacific Rim, robots in the context of the global old, and Japan’s selling nuclear tech.
Japan’s got the best robot exoskeletons, and the best among them is Cyberdyne’s HAL. But there’s a new Power Loader in town, and HAL better stay on it’s game – which is also presented here as a wildly generalizing analogy for Japan’s floppy electronics industry.
Prosthetic maker RSLSteeper has been around for over 90 years, but marketing seems to be a relatively recent endeavor. Their Bebionic3 super awesome robotic hand is all over the tubes right now, but nobody knows from whence it came!