1578  MS Dancer - in the news

Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 21:24:12 +0900
From: astrid <astrid@RUBY.PLALA.OR.JP>
Subject: Re: MS Dancer - in the news

Today an article on the dance robot appeared in the Japan Times
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030724b4.htm (look
right away,it disappears in three hours when Thursday is over here)
new info, (excerpt):

There are no plans to commercialize the robot, but the team hopes in the
future to program the robot to be able to judge and award points on the
performance of its human dance partner.

The robot, which wears a white dress, is 162 cm and weighs 43 kg. Equipped
with a computer, sensors and batteries, it can move in any direction on four
wheels and has memory for five steps necessary to dance the waltz.

"As with people, the robot needs a thoughtful partner," Kosuge said. "Any
abrupt, forceful lead movements will cause it to stop dancing."

The Japan Times: July 24, 2003
(C) All rights reserved

Hear, hear, even the robot needs a thoughtful partner...Ahaaa! It will be
able top judge and award points ! So, maybe there is a possibility for a
future alternative to a home exercise video?
You will see the robot with her dress no longer pulled up to her waist but
covering her "hips" now. It is a white satin ballroom dress, and "she" wears
a dark-haired wig and her face bears a certain resemblance with Victoria
Beckham. Her hands are gruesome, sinewy and huge, like Schwarzenegger's.
They will have to work on that, who wants a female
Arnold's hand on his shoulder during tango? Or any other dance?
New pick up line: "Sweetie, I have brought you a bottle of nail polishb
today..."
The proportions (1,62m and 43kg,) corresponding to an 11 year old girl in
the west or so, are quite normal for adult women in Japan. Maybe a little on
the skinny side, more normal is 47-52kg or so for a lady. {1kg=2,2 pounds}
Now maybe those who thought, I must be fat and gigantic, when I mentioned
that Japanese men here prefer smaller, lighter women to me sometimes, will
maybe understand, what I was really talking about.
And it said, the robot knows five moves, used in waltz. But they all have to
be led gently, or he will stop dancing with you..

For the robot lovers among you guys, there was also another article in that
paper today, "Secret of snail's pace examined".
Scientists in Combridge, Mass., are working on a project on how the snail's
locomotion works. "To ponder the slime, [MIT researchers have built} a
robotic snail. It measures 25cm in length and is housed in a rubbery
membrane that moves forward on a thin layer of slime". It will be used in
"preventative medicine", they are aiming at developping smaller devices.
(Ugghhh...)

Astrid reporting from Tokyo