Competition between man and machine is mythic, and an intimate relationship further diverse - humans suffer a great deal with unwillingness to grant equal rights across sexes and religions, overriding the sense of justness. ‘Machines don’t think, its people who do’, a belief that is perhaps out-reasoned today by the wittiness of the former.
Thought to impart equal status to the androids, would require us humans to be willing at heart - crafting the robots into emotional and empathetic fools like ourselves, to fill the void in the intimate relationship between the two. However, do robots really want something? Maybe not, but we want a lot out of them, for which humanization is the next stride forward.
Imagining a robot resemble one of us could be scary not detrimental though. Finances will be crucial to come up with something that’s out of the conventional boxed torso design - and this is what a small coterie of devoted professionals (led by Jimmy Or) and amateurs are working on, wishing to make fully articulated, humanoid and even sinuously dancing robots a certainty, outdoing the conformist - as these next generation humanoid robots will have spines.
The flexible motorized spines would allow robots to interact with humans like any one of us - reminding of the famous small screen series character, Vicky (a humanoid robot in Small Wonder).
Jimmy Or isn’t the only one who strives in the direction of flexible-spine models - there are researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center who have developed an artificial spine to help test medical devices, and researchers at the University of Tokyo are working on similar lines as well. Yet, Or claims his robots to be superior coz of their ability to stand and move about without external support.
Enormous costs are involved in android research - it may cost a fortune, but when vision’s there and determination is strong - success is a slave. This is what Jimmy Or, developing world’s first flexible spine, self-supporting humanoid robot has proven.
[Source: Wired]
