Robots | Androids | Robotics | Techno Art | Artificial Intelligence | Economy of Japan | Documentary

Posted by Pruitt Green on May 27th, 2021

[, Music, ], [, Music ], if you're having tea with a giant hello, kitty, doll, then you're almost certainly in japan, [, Music ]. This is a place that specializes in obsessing over things and taking every want and need to their unnatural extreme. If you desire a refreshing drink, there's a vending machine that will evaluate your face and pick the perfect beverage [ Music, ] or perhaps you prefer to imbibe, while in the company of an ornamental owl, [, Music, ] or to down a latte with a three-dimensional robot. As garnish, ah, that's a good robot, the japanese, of course, also fetishized technology like no other culture, [ Music, ], japan's once glorious tech, shine, may have dulled with the decline of sony and other empires, but without question. There'S a new tech movement on the rise, [ Music ], i'm traveling from tokyo to kyoto, to meet the japanese inventors, bringing this new culture to life away. We go along the way, i'll hang with some robots. It can kick my ass and lose myself in this trippy wonderland. All on this episode of hello world silicon valley may be home to some of the biggest tech giants in the world, but it's being challenged like never before crazy tech. Geniuses have popped up all over the planet, making things that will blow your mind. My name is ashley vance, i'm an author and journalist and i'm on a quest to find the most innovative tech creations and meet the beautiful freaks behind them. [, Music ]. Where else would i begin my journey, but in tokyo millions of people make their way around the city in an orderly fashion, [ Music ] doing their best, not to bother anyone. The hustle of modern life dominates the city, but it's at night that tokyo really comes to life. Welcome to the robot restaurant [, Music ] as touristy and insane as all of this is. It actually gets to the heart of japan's relationship with robots, [, Music ]. The machines here come with stories and personality they're, good, they're, bad, and sometimes they eat people, but far away from the fire-breathing dinosaurs and werewolf guitarists. Researchers at a tokyo museum have set up a workshop where they're looking to prove that robots can be imbued with life. Hello eat your red pill and try to keep up [ Music ], professor takashi ikagami, has helped create this thing, which looks like it comes straight from ex machina central casting through a series of sensors and artificial intelligence software. This android looks out into the world and reacts to what it sees the android is in effect, evolving, based on what its ai software seems to like. Basically, there are two different mechanisms: one is um autonomous rhythm generators, okay, coupled with each other also there's artificial, neural networks, spontaneously firing and sending signals to each other [ Music ]. As someone approaches the android, the sensors detect the movement and then the software kicks in. To determine how the robot will move in response [, Music ], but for the moment it has a movement style that could be described as that really drunk guy at the party. Okay. So in each one of these sensor boxes right here: yes, there's two cameras yep and this is measuring the measuring distance. Yes, so when i come closer or further away from the machine, then robot has to do something. It has to do react to that yeah. You guys will add more and more sensors yeah. We can put like temperature sensors, sound sensors, many other sensors armed with more sensors. The robot can make more judgments about its environment and more nuanced reactions over time. The movements and gurgles change. The thinking is that the robot will eventually form its own personality and possibly even language. What'S the deal with the noise? Is it hungry? This sound is designed by my student. That behavior is modifying those sounds. The sound is changing all the time. It'S more, like you know, a primitive language. like this 'S i think the interesting part of it like our babies. We don't have to tell everything to the baby, but baby can learn unconsciously by interacting with people with the environment right, [, Music ]. Once we have a bunch of lifelike systems around us, maybe our concept of what is life will be very much different and then, if we want to co-exist with robots, then we maybe have to learn different languages and different ways of thinking: [, Music ]. So that doesn't freak you out, you think, that's! I think it's much more ideal to me. Comparing with this you know very violent world right now, [, Music, ]. Well, thank you for letting me see your android. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, she said something i think he said he likes you [ Music, ], [ Applause, ]. If you want to learn about robot culture, kyoto is as good of a place to start as any for hundreds of years. It has been the showcase city for japan's. Most famous traditions from geishas to spectacular temples over in the university district. You can also find some of japan's best technological minds. I'Ve come to doshisha university to dive deep into japan's love affair, with robots with a professor and one of japan's most active robot [ Music. ] hobbyists [, Music, ], wow, yeah akira's got good moves, embodies a japanese concept known as otaku. It refers to a person who obsesses over something, be it hello, kitty, sushi or robots [ Music ] for takashi robotics is more than a hobby. It'S his passion. Most of his free time goes into assembling these things by hand out of 3d printed body parts and electronics. Do you work on these almost every day? Yes about two hours, almost every day, that's cool. Each one takes months to build, including the software for the choreographed moves, but it's not all for show these robots must fight to earn their key akira would hit other robots. One of takashi's robots recently took first place in a competition making him king of the otaku [ Music ] and when you're the king. There are people that want to study you. One of japan's foremost researchers into the relationship between man and bots is hirofumi katsuno, an anthropologist here at doshisha university. I was looking for you know the passionate people who work on robots. I joined the group and started to create my own robots and youtube met at these. In the events, hiro felt compelled to ask that seinfeldian question. What'S the deal with japan and all those robots, it's related to japan's sort of national quest to establish its own identity and after the world war ii. So, after the sort of devastation of the whole land, japan started to rebuild the nation through promoting the peaceful use of science and technology. In that process, i think many uh anime creators and manga creators started to ponder the kind of ideal relationship between the japanese and technology, for instance like tisca. Some hiro is not alone in pointing to the significance of astro boy. The manga series started in the 1950s and has a mad scientist type building an android to replace his dead son. The saga goes on to explore what life would be like if humans and robots coexist, and it's that very same idea that one local tech giant has invested millions of dollars to pursue [ Music, ] [ Laughter, ] hitachi produces a shocking amount of stuff from brain Scanners right on up to nuclear reactors, this being japan, it's also in the robot game. I'Ve gone to one of the company's vaunted research labs to see its latest take on the robot that people desire most an autonomous helper hitachi calls this creature, emu, hello. Everyone was developed as a sort of friendly robot concierge equipped with ai for navigation and speech recognition. He might provide directions at an airport or do some low-level security work or he might be kicked over by a cynical reporter. Looking for a good time, that's pretty cool that resemblance between emu and my pal, hello kitty is on purpose. Emu'S designer asi baba wanted the robot to have the same harmless non-creepy feel. Is it meant to look like a child? Yes, because everyone like it, everyone likes a child, yeah fair enough, there's an adorable quality to these robots, and they may be helpful one day. The moment, though rolling around looking cute, is about the extent of what they can do and they're super expensive to make. Do you have a price that you're aiming to get to, we replied to you, know cheaper than a car be cheaper than a car? Okay! What'S that emu, you want to make up for your failings by showing me an autonomous vehicle. Okay, thanks herbie, here's my ride! This sweet hog with the flip top door, is called ropitz away. We go it's sort of like a self-driving car, but is meant to travel down sidewalks instead of on the road - and this is the vehicle's inventor ryoki hichinosis. Japan'S aging population has forced the country to try and invent new ways to help seniors make their way around cities. The idea here is that someone can summon the car to their house and then go for a leisurely drive to the store. The open windows and slow speed of rope-its means that the driver can even have a chat with a friend or perhaps an emmy walking nearby [ Applause ], it's a beautiful utopian future hitachi is imagining for us all full of smart, compassionate robots attending to our every Need but suffice it to say that future very much remains the future. The wall, the wall, the wall. Where are we going? Where are we going? What'S going on? Robot help emu. Japan'S creative thinking has stalled in recent years as its tech giants and startups have struggled [ Music ]. To find out why i joined my friend, noriaki okubo back in tokyo for a chat about japan's tech scene over noodles aki is a well-connected tech, guru, venture, capitalist and champion noodle slurper. I'Ve never worked on my slurp technique after a week in japan. I had so many questions for him. How would you compare the japanese vc scene to say silicon valley? Traditional vcs are really bad because they don't want to take risks. There'S a lot of new vcs that are doing pretty well new internet companies, and you know they. They can take risk, but not the traditional. You know salaryman type, vcs, [, Music ] when aki says salaryman he's talking about that image. We have of the conservative, hard-working japanese businessman. This culture rewards conformity and safe business decisions according to aki it's a key factor in the fall of japan's tech dominance in favor of the disruptive mentality of silicon valley. The decisions that come up from that kind of process is always going to be. You know, let's just do something: that's okay and nothing cool yeah. Is there a big call to change that way of thinking i mean i think there is, but it's just still very. The minority yeah well aki's take on technology here holds true in the big picture. There are plenty of people and companies that see themselves as rebels trying to buck the system and no one exemplifies this better than toshiyuki onoko and his company team lab for inoco inspiration struck when he was just eight years old, [, Music ] in my second year Of junior high, i usually tell people that an electric wave struck me, i'm not sure what it actually was, or even how to describe this. But a strong sense of duty that i needed to do something that had meaning in society suddenly came over me. If that red pill is still circulating through your system, then this will feel perfect. Let'S see if we can go, find a fish, [, Music ]! It'S one of team labs, world famous techno, art experiences; they use this projection mapping technology to track the fish and when they hit somebody's body, it's supposed to turn into a flower all right we're supposed to move on. Let'S go down the hallway. How long does it take to do one of these projects not forever? We take one idea and create reconsider, then repeat: the process: [ Music ], for example, the exhibit you saw crystal universe - we've been working on for five years. We'Ve been working on for two to three years: team lab has around 400 employees thinking up new, ever weirder things and working in their makeshift laboratories. What'S this one [ Music, ] you're, making clothes right, i think it's for a show. It'S for a dancer, no he's making clothes for a mascot here, we're experimenting with a device that allows you to manipulate waves in the water you're gon na make patterns in the water and control the patterns. Yeah. That'S cool, [, Music ]! This is the inocu is known throughout japan as a flamboyant character. For him you either create something new where you grow old and stay quiet, [, Music, ], japanese society has aged too much. It is a society of old people, it's conservative and it can't seek value in new things, so you're trying to change that. No, no, no, no! No! No! No! No. I want to be with people who want to take a step into the new world. People who are creative, who want to change the world these people, i hope, to inspire and to have an influence on or by having them experience our art. I want to shake their values so rather than taking on people who don't want change, i work to inspire people who want change: [, Music, ], it's a noco and the people wired like him. The two seem to be japan's best hope for a major technology resurgence. The well-funded, robotics labs and corporate giants do amazing research, but they've struggled to keep pace with places like silicon valley and china when it comes to making products that actually reach consumers. Japan remains trapped between two worlds: the old and the new. It'S a country that has turned the future into a religion, but that must still deal with an aging population and rigid customs. The way forward for japan its chance to really make a mark will almost certainly come from its robots. Emu, for one is already getting ready to be a guide and chauffeur at the 2020 olympics. For now i say good night to japan. May all our dreams be filled with hello, kitty, [, Music, ] up next on hello world. I head to russia to fly drones in siberia, hang with a techno oligarch wow. It'S really cool and get beaten with a birch branch.

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Pruitt Green

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Pruitt Green
Joined: May 26th, 2021
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