We went back to Odaiba on Wednesday to visit the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. The obvious highlight was Asimo, a Honda-developed robot (supposedly the most advanced robot on earth!?) whose greatest quality is smooth human-like movement. The bow is of course important:
And much of the display also focused on Asimo's hand movements, and ability to use arms to maintain balance.
The great technical achievement, though, is running. The first simulations required 30 minutes to execute one human step, but the current Asimo model can run up to 6 kilometers per hour, and gave us a demonstration. A film, on the screen behind, showed that during the running stride, there is a brief moment when both of Asimo's feet are off the ground.
A more disturbing model was this creature, Paro, an interactive pet designed to provide emotional and social stimulation to humans. You pet Paro (who feels like a stuffed animal) and it responds with little sounds.
It's "pacifier" is the electric cord, and always stays in Paro's mouth. But treated right, Paro will open its eyes. (Yes, it is roughly like a baby seal.)
There are also very fine sensors on the tips of its whiskers (above), and if you flick its whiskers, it will squeal with displeasure.
I'm not sure this sign is completely accurate:
This hand-dryer was in the bathrooms at the museum; you do find it other places, but not always. You dip your wet hands, flattened, into the drying space, and the water is blown downward to your fingertips. If you withdraw your hands slowly, they're dry.
A large model of earth, made of video screens, was pretty amazing too.
After a point, though, I felt the museum was just as interesting to get a sense of Japanese art, and the Japanese fantasy of the future, as with this piece:
which depicts:
Or this: a sculpture of a neural transmitter.
A large bank of computers also allowed you to express your opinions about medical ethics, as in this exercise. You expressed your opinion about issues like genetic modification to require less food, gene testing to predict disease, euthanasia, etc., and then a flashing ball on the ceiling would tell you how your vote compared to Japanese public polls.
And much of the display also focused on Asimo's hand movements, and ability to use arms to maintain balance.
The great technical achievement, though, is running. The first simulations required 30 minutes to execute one human step, but the current Asimo model can run up to 6 kilometers per hour, and gave us a demonstration. A film, on the screen behind, showed that during the running stride, there is a brief moment when both of Asimo's feet are off the ground.
A more disturbing model was this creature, Paro, an interactive pet designed to provide emotional and social stimulation to humans. You pet Paro (who feels like a stuffed animal) and it responds with little sounds.
It's "pacifier" is the electric cord, and always stays in Paro's mouth. But treated right, Paro will open its eyes. (Yes, it is roughly like a baby seal.)
There are also very fine sensors on the tips of its whiskers (above), and if you flick its whiskers, it will squeal with displeasure. 
I'm not sure this sign is completely accurate:
This hand-dryer was in the bathrooms at the museum; you do find it other places, but not always. You dip your wet hands, flattened, into the drying space, and the water is blown downward to your fingertips. If you withdraw your hands slowly, they're dry.
A large model of earth, made of video screens, was pretty amazing too.
After a point, though, I felt the museum was just as interesting to get a sense of Japanese art, and the Japanese fantasy of the future, as with this piece:
which depicts:
Or this: a sculpture of a neural transmitter.
A large bank of computers also allowed you to express your opinions about medical ethics, as in this exercise. You expressed your opinion about issues like genetic modification to require less food, gene testing to predict disease, euthanasia, etc., and then a flashing ball on the ceiling would tell you how your vote compared to Japanese public polls.
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