Friday, August 26, 2011
The deliciousness of synchronization
Humans love being in sync.
Trace it back to our roots. Gotta pull a large stone? "Heave ho!"-- pull the rope at the exact moment, and your force multiplies. Need to call someone far away? "One, two, three...JOHN!!!" -- yell at the same time, and your sound travels farther.
Bombard a server from multiple machines around the globe, and you get a DOS attack.
Synchronization is key. ;)
More seriously, it's why church choirs have existed throughout the ages, and army soldiers march despite it making them an easy target. It's called "muscular bonding", and it increases the feeling of group ties and cohesion. It might even be innate -- babies listening to music smile more when their cute dance movements align to the beat. Mirror neurons might be at work here, too.
Humans love being in sync. And, if we take it a stretch, it's why the guitarist in our human-robot band below starts that neck groove at 0:33. (Let's not discuss tuning issues for now :P)
Try it for yourself. Turn on some beat-heavy music and invite a close friend to your room for a dance-a-thon. Tape some EMG sensors on to your face and track your smile as your arms flail in mirror-like ecstasy.
Or, you know, just evaluate it qualitatively. I won't tell.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
What's in a voice?
A couple months ago I decided to bring Naoki to band practice. On the way back, instead of putting him into my backpack as usual, I decided to leave him standing, with just one behavior on: voice direction detection. Basically, if there is a sound nearby, Naoki looks at it. Coddled in my arms, I headed back home via the Japanese train station.
It was a bit hit. At the train station, I put Naoki down as I rifled through my bag for my train pass. Naoki stood guard as I searched, elbow-deep, in my purse. A second later, I looked back down, sensing a presence.
A toddler had appeared, standing face to face with Naoki.
The toddler's smiling eyes showed that he was clearly enamored with my robot. Naoki's head, sound-detection on, whirled left and right as the 2-year-old babbled happily with his new-found friend.
The toddler's mom was not far behind.
"Sumimasen!" she said apologetically, but with a big smile on her face. She crouched down behind her toddler and took his baby hand in hers. The next thing she did took me aback.
"Konnichiwa!" she said, coaxing her baby to wave and greet the robot.
With a warm grin, she asked me the robot's name. "Namae wa?" Well, I told her. "Naoki desu." She nodded approvingly and told me her toddler's name. "Kochi wa Taro-kun*."
I smiled at her and her baby's openness to technology, though it quickly transformed into a look of shocked realization.
I was in the middle of a Mom-baby-baby-Mom play date exchange.
Well, Naoki never was able to return the "konnichiwa" so graciously proffered by this curious duo, so eventually we parted ways.
When I returned home, I quickly looked into a new TTS system on Naoki. Instead of the default French or English, I needed Naoki to speak Japanese. Happily, Aldebaran provided me with a new Japanese language pack. Though, whereas the voice for Nao in French is "totally Nao-ish" (my definition), the Japanese voice still needs a bit of work. Have a look.
Translation: "I can speak Japanese now, but it ain't cute."
Japan is obsessed with voices, with the biggest celebs being the voices behind popular animations. I'm betting and hoping that one day we'll find a better, cuter voice for Japanese Nao's.
It'd be a big hit with the ladies. And their toddlers.
* probably not his real name, I can't remember
It was a bit hit. At the train station, I put Naoki down as I rifled through my bag for my train pass. Naoki stood guard as I searched, elbow-deep, in my purse. A second later, I looked back down, sensing a presence.
A toddler had appeared, standing face to face with Naoki.
The toddler's smiling eyes showed that he was clearly enamored with my robot. Naoki's head, sound-detection on, whirled left and right as the 2-year-old babbled happily with his new-found friend.
The toddler's mom was not far behind.
"Sumimasen!" she said apologetically, but with a big smile on her face. She crouched down behind her toddler and took his baby hand in hers. The next thing she did took me aback.
"Konnichiwa!" she said, coaxing her baby to wave and greet the robot.
With a warm grin, she asked me the robot's name. "Namae wa?" Well, I told her. "Naoki desu." She nodded approvingly and told me her toddler's name. "Kochi wa Taro-kun*."
I smiled at her and her baby's openness to technology, though it quickly transformed into a look of shocked realization.
I was in the middle of a Mom-baby-baby-Mom play date exchange.
Well, Naoki never was able to return the "konnichiwa" so graciously proffered by this curious duo, so eventually we parted ways.
When I returned home, I quickly looked into a new TTS system on Naoki. Instead of the default French or English, I needed Naoki to speak Japanese. Happily, Aldebaran provided me with a new Japanese language pack. Though, whereas the voice for Nao in French is "totally Nao-ish" (my definition), the Japanese voice still needs a bit of work. Have a look.
Translation: "I can speak Japanese now, but it ain't cute."
Japan is obsessed with voices, with the biggest celebs being the voices behind popular animations. I'm betting and hoping that one day we'll find a better, cuter voice for Japanese Nao's.
It'd be a big hit with the ladies. And their toddlers.
* probably not his real name, I can't remember
Saturday, August 20, 2011
My dream of a cooking robot
A long time ago, I used to watch this cooking show in my parent's old townhouse. It was called Yan Can Cook, and I still remember being glued to the TV as the guy cooked up stir-fries and delicious Chinese foods like Beef and Broccoli. Oh, god, hunger pangs...
Although mostly amused by his wicked cool Chinese accent, I came to admire Yan and the meals he served at the end of each show.
This, coupled with the fact that my mom never taught me to cook (she was a T&T mom -- she bought our hot dinners from T&T Supermarket) convinced me that either:
1) I had to learn how to cook, or
2) I had to program a robot to cook
Then I realized that I needed to do 1) before even attempting to do 2). It's kind of like trying to teach someone to drive when you don't have a license. If I can't even make good food myself, how could I possibly get the robot to do it?
Right now I'm on internship in Tokyo. It's a lavish life, where one could easily get free meals at work by staying late. But here it is.
My short-term goal: Every night, I'm going to come home, get some ingredients from the store, and make something good.
My long-term goal: Every night, I'm going to come home, and my robot will have gotten some ingredients from the store and made something good.
For the more practical-minded out there, what are some of the obstacles facing a future of cooking robots? This is a great question. I'll post it later :)
Although mostly amused by his wicked cool Chinese accent, I came to admire Yan and the meals he served at the end of each show.
This, coupled with the fact that my mom never taught me to cook (she was a T&T mom -- she bought our hot dinners from T&T Supermarket) convinced me that either:
1) I had to learn how to cook, or
2) I had to program a robot to cook
Then I realized that I needed to do 1) before even attempting to do 2). It's kind of like trying to teach someone to drive when you don't have a license. If I can't even make good food myself, how could I possibly get the robot to do it?
Right now I'm on internship in Tokyo. It's a lavish life, where one could easily get free meals at work by staying late. But here it is.
My short-term goal: Every night, I'm going to come home, get some ingredients from the store, and make something good.
My long-term goal: Every night, I'm going to come home, and my robot will have gotten some ingredients from the store and made something good.
For the more practical-minded out there, what are some of the obstacles facing a future of cooking robots? This is a great question. I'll post it later :)
Hello, (Brave New) World
On this day, August 21, 2011, I begin a new chapter of my life.
Actually, I'm just beginning a new blog. But it's kind of the same thing, right? Right.
The topic of discussion shall be "My Cute Robot," where I shall blissfully record the growth and development of Naoki, my personal robot from Aldebaran Robotics. For starters, I'm going to post my slew of videos from the YouTubes containing Naoki, and give a bit more insight into my thoughts for each.
Because you know, Naoki ain't just a pretty face. Thought you should know.
Naoki Facts
Date of birth: February 28, 2011
Weight at birth: 4.3 kg
Current weight: 4.3 kg
Eye colour: Whatever you want them to be
Sensors: 2 cameras, sonar array, 4 microphones, touch sensors, joint position sensors, gyroscope, and a partridge in a pear tree ♫
Fingers: 6
Battery life: 1.5 hrs when dorking around not doing anything
Nationality: ?
Species: Nao version H25 v3.3 -- or as I like to call it -- "Silver surfer"
Languages: English, French, Japanese, Python, C++
Origin: http://developer.aldebaran-robotics.com/join/
Relatives: Angelica (Single mom new!)
Please comment on my posts, because Naoki, even though he doesn't admit it, is really quite the attention whore (is it ok to call my robot child a whore?) Anyhoo, enjoy.
Actually, I'm just beginning a new blog. But it's kind of the same thing, right? Right.
The topic of discussion shall be "My Cute Robot," where I shall blissfully record the growth and development of Naoki, my personal robot from Aldebaran Robotics. For starters, I'm going to post my slew of videos from the YouTubes containing Naoki, and give a bit more insight into my thoughts for each.
Because you know, Naoki ain't just a pretty face. Thought you should know.
Naoki Facts
Date of birth: February 28, 2011
Weight at birth: 4.3 kg
Current weight: 4.3 kg
Eye colour: Whatever you want them to be
Sensors: 2 cameras, sonar array, 4 microphones, touch sensors, joint position sensors, gyroscope, and a partridge in a pear tree ♫
Fingers: 6
Battery life: 1.5 hrs when dorking around not doing anything
Nationality: ?
Species: Nao version H25 v3.3 -- or as I like to call it -- "Silver surfer"
Languages: English, French, Japanese, Python, C++
Origin: http://developer.aldebaran-robotics.com/join/
Relatives: Angelica (Single mom new!)
Please comment on my posts, because Naoki, even though he doesn't admit it, is really quite the attention whore (is it ok to call my robot child a whore?) Anyhoo, enjoy.
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