Robotic Nation Evidence

FANUC Robotics' Rick Schneider to Present 'Save Your Factory' at Management Briefing Seminar in Traverse City, Michigan

From the article:

According to Schneider, the latest paradigm is that in order for companies to be competitive, their manufacturing operations must be located in low-cost labor markets, causing them to abandon existing plants and move manufacturing overseas. Sometimes this strategy makes sense, but many companies fail to look at other options that can lead to greater profits and better products while keeping manufacturing in North America. 'We want to get the message out to North American manufacturers that they have choices when it comes to manufacturing, and that the chips are not necessarily stacked in favor of low- cost labor markets.'

"Choices" means "robots". He goes on:

The 'Save Your Factory' initiative encourages North American manufacturers to use productivity-enhancing technologies to become globally competitive. 'FANUC Robotics and the other 'Save Your Factory' coalition members are committed to helping manufacturers understand that automation, lean manufacturing, six sigma, industrial robots, and other process improvement methods will combat the economic lure of moving their manufacturing operations,' said Schneider.

Speeches like this make it obvious that the Robotic Nation is inevitable, and will arrive rapidly. The same logic is true for every segment of the economy. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, pilots, retail clerks, fast food employees -- in short, everyone -- can be replaced by robots. See Robots taking jobs for a long list.

We've covered Repliee before, but here is another article on her:

Japanese develop 'female' android

From the article: "Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised - a 'female' android called Repliee Q1."

See also: Robots that look human.

Sewer line trouble? A robot to the rescue

From the article:

Right now, a robot could be crawling around under your house, making sure everything is OK with your sewer lines.

That mechanical friend -- Responder is its name -- will get a starring role on cable TV's History Channel at 9 p.m. today and 7 p.m. Saturday.

LAPD Recruits Computer to Stop Rogue Cops

From the article:

"There definitely needs to be computerized management" of officers, said Andre Birotte, the LAPD's inspector general. "There have been concerns with all the scandals that have gone on within the department."

Community leaders hope the tracking system can help restore public confidence shaken by high-profile shootings and scandals involving the LAPD.

Robots will soon be managing most human beings. See Manna for details.

Call me HAL: Japan looks to robots for elderly care

From the article:

As the country's population ages rapidly and its workforce shrinks, care workers may be hard to come by, so researchers are trying to develop the ultimate personal care givers: robots.

"Unlike the United States or Europe, Japan is reluctant to allow in cheap foreign laborers," said Takashi Gomi, president of Canada-based Applied AI Systems Inc., whose company has developed a prototype of an "intelligent" wheelchair that can move around on its own and sense obstacles to avoid them.

"I don't think this will change easily in the next 20 to 30 years, so robots are about the only solution," said Gomi, a Canadian researcher born in Japan.

Japan is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. It has an incentive to rapidly deploy robots in its economy. That will accelerate the creation of the Robotic Nation.

On Friday it was noted here that large layoffs are becoming noticeable. This article in Saturday's paper notes the same thing:

Layoffs defy upbeat Wall Street

The fascinating paragraph in the article is this one:

But some economy watchers are concerned that this latest flurry of job cuts -- a byproduct of outsourcing, mergers, automation, changing technology and consumer demands -- may foreshadow trouble.

"We won't know till afterwards, but I do think we may be seeing a tipping point in the economic cycle that these big layoffs are flagging," said John A. Carpenter, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based employment research firm. "I think it's a sign that leaks are breaking out."

One thing is for certain: It was not a good week for American labor. In fact, it's been an unusually torrid summer of payroll trimming.

The title of the article is also interesting. The layoffs do not "defy" an upbeat Wall Street -- they propel it. When a company announces large layoffs, it HELPS the stock. Firing people is good for a company's stock price. This fact is one of the many things that will propel us toward the Robotic Nation.

By replacing employees with robots, companies become more profitable and their stock prices go up. There is no law that says that companies have to employ people. As robots get more versatile and more intelligent, companies will continue dumping people onto the unemployment roles. See Robots taking Jobs for details.

Robotic surgery

From the article:

The era of robotic surgery has arrived in Korea. Yesterday at Severance Hospital in Sinchon, a robot performed an entire operation, from opening up the patient to stitching everything up. Previously, robots had supported surgeons in operations. But with the 'da Vinci' surgical robot, doctors now play the supporting role.

See also Surgeons to be close behind pilots and Robotic surgeons.

If you have ever heard of "the singularity", wondered what it means and would like to learn more, here is a FAQ that provides you with a nice introduction: Singularity FAQ for Dummies.

RFID System Prevented A Possible Infant Abduction

From the article:

Radio-frequency identification technology from VeriChip Corp., a provider of security and identification technology, prevented the abduction of a baby late last week from the Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, N.C.

VeriChip's 'Hugs' Infant Protection System sounded an audible alarm and flashed a warning on the screen at the seventh-floor nurses' station when the parents of an infant attempted to remove their baby without authorization from the hospital's nursery. Staff quickly responded to the 'Code Pink' alert, and security officials were able to stop the abduction, recover the infant unharmed, and return him safely to maternity ward staff. The parents, who have two other children in the supervision of social services, were concerned this child, too, would be removed from their care, according to a spokesman for Presbyterian Healthcare, the parent company of the hospital.

Tagging people is going to become more and more common. One obvious reason is security, where it will eliminate anonimity. The other reason is so that our robots can identify us easily and definitively.

HP lays off 15,000

Winn-Dixie retools, lays off 22,000 workers

Kodak plans to cut 10,000 more jobs

That's nearly 50,000 people out of their jobs this week.

Robot Submarines Go To War. Part 2: The Navy's AUVs

From the article:

Already, smart unmanned subs are set to replace dolphins as undersea mine sniffers. Next tech: mine detonation, remote sleuthing and robotic combat.

Sheathed in a chilling veil of rain, under cover of darkness, a few Navy Seals descend from a ship into a small rubber boat. They motor to a nearby harbor, idle the engine, and gently lower three torpedo-shaped objects into the water. The mission? Locate that persistent nemesis of amphibious operations: undersea mines. But tonight, instead of the specially trained dolphins or human divers who would normally do this work, the Navy is relying on robots.

If the Air Force can replace all of its pilots with robotic aircraft, it seems appropriate for the Navy to do the same.

See also UH readies first autonomous undersea robot, which includes a nice photo.

This is a remarkable little humanoid robot built by a college student:

Humanoid Robotics, Almir Heralic

It's called HR-2. From the site: "The HR-2 robot was constructed during a period of three months at Chalmers University in Sweden. It has 22 degrees of freedom which enables it to easily move around imitating human motions." There's a very nice movie showing its capabilities.

Who Says Robots Can't Bluff?

Human beats poker-playing robot

From the article:

It took three hours, but a human poker player has emerged dominant over a wily computer program named PokerProbot...

It would for sure make money online, Laak said of PokerProbot. At least in the simpler versions of Texas hold 'em with betting limits, bots are better than the average person.

Fast forward a couple of years and robots will be able to beat all human players at poker. Then combine the poker robot with a chess robot, a checkers robot, a bridge robot, a Parcheesi robot, an Old Maid robot, etc. Now you have a robot that can beat any human at any game. In 10 or 15 years, combine this robot with an advanced car-driving robot that can drive better than a human being (and does it 24x7 as well).

And just keep combining... Welcome to the Robotic Nation.

'Stanley' gets ready for the robo-desert race

From the article:

"It's no easy task to teach a car to drive itself. It takes radar, vision and laser sensors fastened to the car that can act as early warning systems, detecting close and far-range obstacles. It draws on GPS (Global Positioning System) sensors to trace many of its steps.

The computer scientists have written more than 100,000 lines of code to tell Stanley what to do. There's a map that tells the car where to drive, a planning tool that points out unsafe terrain, and a controller that translates all that into action. The software runs on six Pentium M processors, which are Intel-made, low-power chips originally designed for the telecommunications industry."

See also Robots are unable to meet DARPA's Grand Challenge for a perspective on how fast things are advancing.

More from the "soon your car will drive itself" department:

Your own electronic 'rumble strip'

From the article:

Every time he strayed over the lane markers, a warning beep sounded -- unless Memole had signaled a lane change by using the directional signals, not always standard operating procedure in this metro area.

He was demonstrating the company's Lane Departure Warning system, an option offered on the 2005 Infiniti FX crossover SUVs and the 2006 Infiniti M premium luxury sedan.

Even in spots where the lane markers were largely obliterated, the system -- based on a camera tucked up behind the rearview mirror coupled with the Iteris software -- worked.

Over the past decade, while a good portion of the automotive R&D folks were working on radar systems, Iteris went in another direction, using cameras and ''smart" software to develop an electronic version of "rumble strips."

Home, Secure Home: "Twice a day, a drone helicopter flies along the perimeter of the property, surveying the landscape with a pair of wireless camera 'eyes.' Robot security guards patrol the grounds. Visitors who show up at the enforced steel door at the center of the property must present a biometric passport and submit to an iris scan. Inside, computers and security personnel track the identities of visitors as they move from one room to the next. These aren't precautions at a supersecure government site, but the latest defenses available to the well-heeled homeowner. Security technology once the reserve of government agents is fast becoming a part of everyday civilian reality�for those who can afford it."

NASA Selects Robotic Workspace Technologies, Inc., Subsidiary of Innova Holdings, Inc., to Provide Controls for Robotic Mechanisms: "Robotic Workspace Technologies, Inc. (RWT(tm)) has been awarded a multi-phase contract by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to provide control systems for robotic mechanisms that are planned for a future mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The contract comprises two phases and specifies the company's Universal Robot Controller(tm) (URC(tm)). Details of the transaction were not disclosed. "

No matter who wins, robotics take big leap forward: "A favorite in this league is Team Osaka, a club set up mainly by small and midsize businesses in the city. Its VisiON robot won last year's event in its debut. This year, the team will compete with a new version of the robot, called VisiON NEXTA. The 47.5-centimeter-tall robot bears a physical resemblance to its predecessor, but inside it packs far more punch.

For starters, it can process data eight times faster than its predecessor, and the resolution of its 360-degree field-of-vision camera is four times as great. Team Osaka officials say the key to winning the competition will be how quickly a robot can get to its feet again after falling over in clashes with rivals. RoboCup officials say one of the most noticeable technological improvements in the competition has been the advancement in sensor technology, particularly in the increased processing power, which improves the robots' ability to see. "

Carnegie Mellon's Sandstorm robot makes unprecedented 200-mile autonomous run

From the article:

Carnegie Mellon University's autonomous robotic HUMMER Sandstorm drove an unprecedented 200 miles in seven hours without human guidance last week in preparation for the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, a 175-mile driverless desert race with a $2 million winner-take-all prize.

Sandstorm uses sensors to "see" and computers to "drive." It drove 131 laps on the 1.5-mile racecourse at the BeaveRun MotorSports Complex near Pittsburgh, Pa., on July 4. The drive was an endurance evaluation for the robot's computers, sensors and mechanical systems. The machine averaged 28 miles per hour and hit a top speed of 36 miles per hour to complete its 7-hour, 200-mile marathon.

"That doesn't sound like a big deal for a human-driven car, but it is a very big deal for the pioneering of computer-driven vehicles," said Red Team leader, Robotics Professor William L. "Red" Whittaker. "That distance, speed and duration are unprecedented for a completely autonomous machine. However, this machine and 19 others will face far more difficult conditions in the October 8 race across the Mojave Desert.

Nice photos of camels being ridden by robots:

Robot camel jockeys

The question is, how long before the camels are replaced by robots as well?

I, Roommate: The Robot Housekeeper Arrives

From the article:

WHEN my home robot arrived last month, its smiling inventors removed it from its box and laid it on its back on my living room floor. They leaned over and spoke to it, as one might to a sleeping child.

It straightened, let out a little beep, lighted up, looked left and right, and then, amazingly, stood and faced me.

I said, "Nuvo, how are you?"

It tilted to the left, and raised one arm to greet me. It shook my hand and winked with one of the lights in its little head. My life hasn't really been the same since.

See also Luxury robots.

Will RFID-guided robots rule the world?

From the article:

Picture a typical playground. It's a sunny day and kids are playing tag, smacking tetherballs around and hanging off the monkey bars. Now imagine this: There's not a single parent or adult in sight, but a 3-foot, 260-pound robot on patrol instead.

Take a closer look and you'll see the children wearing small electronic devices, tiny radio transmitters that signal the bot when the kids wander out of safe range. Equipped with a camera, the robot relays live video to a remote security facility. When a stranger approaches one of the children, the robot, controlled remotely, gets aggressive. On six wheels, it pursues the intruder, flashing bright lights and sirens and spewing a thick cloud of smoke. The cyber-guard snaps a few pictures, too.

Sound far-fetched? Perhaps, but Secom, a security company in Japan, has already built such a machine, called Robot X. The company rents the robotic security guard for $2,700 per month, according to reports, and recently introduced a version designed specifically to monitor schoolyards and send reports of children's whereabouts to parents' cell phones.

See also Why so nervous about robots, Wal-Mart?

A bit different...

ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show

Luxury Robots

See also: Home robots you can buy.

Why so nervous about robots, Wal-Mart?

From the article:

I got a dose of Wal-Mart's defensive posture first-hand last week when reporting a feature story News.com published today on the future of inventory-checking robots. After an executive at Frontline Robotics informed me that Wal-Mart is eyeing robot technology, I called Wal-Mart for confirmation.

Wal-Mart representative Christi Gallagher, the company's spokeswoman on supply chain and technology issues, took my call. She also happens to be the media point person on labor relations and employment litigation.

As soon as I mentioned robots, Gallagher seemed eager to end the call. "We are not looking into robots in any way, shape or form," she said abruptly. I tried probing for more, but she had nothing further to offer.

All that you have to do is read Robots in 2015 to understand why Wal-Mart doesn't want to discuss it. The completely robotic Wal-Mart is just not that far away. When Wal-Mart converts, the company will need to dump about 1 million employees onto the job market.

At the same time, every other retailer will need to convert to the same kind of system in order to compete, which means about 10 million people will pour onto the unemployment rolls over the course of just 3 to 5 years. At the same time, millions of teachers will be pouring onto the unemployment roles as well. So will pilots. So will... see Robots and jobs for a long list.

It will be a remarkable period of time, for which there is no precedent and for which we are largely unprepared. See Robotic Nation for details.

Vocie recognition breakthrough: "As for a machine, each variant of a voice is unique. That is why speech recognition programs usually require training. As a result of training, an enormous library is built up in the memory of the silicon brain, where thousands of possible options of pronunciation of the same words (for example, numerals) are stored. Having heard a word, the computer would look through the library and almost certainly something similar to the heard word will be found in it.

The approach suggested by the scientists from the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, at the Russian Academy of Sciences, is rather more human than machine: a computer under the researchers' guidance filters individual peculiarities. It picks out the most basic things and rejects all immaterial ones. As a result, the machine even acquires the ability to discern individual sounds and to put together in its 'mind' familiar words from these sounds.

As a result, 1 kilobyte would be sufficient for a processor to confidently recognize all numerals and some simple commands, however, pronounced (although only in Russian at the moment). Several dozen people with far-from-ideal articulation - tried to confuse the quick-witted program, by pronouncing numerals either in a whisper or in a voice trembling with excitement. However, the computer successfully rejected emotional frequencies as irrelevent. "

Read the story again? Sure. Computers don't get tired.: "For all those parents whose voices have grown hoarse sounding out the rhymes in their child's favorite picture book 'just one more time,' some reinforcements have arrived.

One More Story is a new online library where children can choose a book - complete with narration, highlighted text, and the book's original illustrations - and listen as they read along on the computer.

Creators Carl Teitelbaum and Rona Roth see it as an opportunity to bring literature to an electronically inundated generation. Aimed at the home rather than the educational sphere, it's the first website to deliver popular children's books along with music and sound effects, says Jim Eber, a spokesman for One More Story (www.onemorestory.com)."

It does not seem that this is any different than using a DVD as a babysitter, but it is another form of technological babysitting.

Robotic Container Ship

From the article:

Thanks to large-scale automation, Shenzhen has a crew complement of only 19, and virtually the entire ship can be controlled and adjusted from a single Windows-based computer terminal. Several such terminals are scattered throughout the ship, meaning that the ship’s officers can make adjustments to the ship from their cabins if necessary.

19 is not that many. How long before the ship needs zero people?

Thinking about the London subway bombings last week, it seems like one thing is certain. In just a few years, after one or two more incidents like this, we are very likely to see the end of anonymity in human society.

What happened on Thursday is that several people walked with complete anonymity into several subway stations. They planted their bombs invisibly and then either left the scene or remained to be detonated. We have no idea who they were, where they came from, who they associated with or where they went if they left the scene.

We consider anonymity like this to be completely normal today. And we see the effects of this anonymity constantly, simply by reading the paper or watching the news. Anonymity gives criminals a huge advantage. The O.J. Simpson case and its "trial of the century" brought this point home with a big splash 10 years ago. On June 12, 1994, two people died in a brutal murder and no one can conclusively prove who did it. We have no idea who was on the street near Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman at the time of the murder, or where O.J. Simpson was that night.

The O.J. case is one end of the spectrum – a gigantic murder mystery. At the other end are tiny crimes that happen anonymously everyday. For example, one of my neighbors found the envelope of a credit card bill torn open and lying on the grass near his mailbox last week. He has no idea who did it, and therefore had to cancel all of his credit cards that afternoon.

It would be relatively easy to eliminate anonymity today, and that is why its end is near. All that we need is a way to read biometric information (thumbprint, iris, whatever) whenever a person enters and leaves an area like a subway station. This might be done very simply with thumbprint-reading turnstiles. This type of identity gathering will occur at the entrance to every subway station, building, airport, mall, campus, park, stadium, etc. In addition, the identity of every car will be tracked as it moves around.

That will be the first level of the net. With these simple measures, we would know the identity of everyone who entered the subway stations on Thursday. That data would make it easy to discover the identity of the London terrorists in just a few days.

Then the net will tighten. Once it is known who is entering each facility, it will be possible to use cameras to track each person's motion and identify their exact location on a moment by moment basis. If Person X stops to talk to Person Y, that will be known. So will all of Person X's and Person Y's phone calls, email messages, package deliveries, purchases, etc. No longer will email messages and spam arrive with anonymity – we will know exactly who sent them, and so will "the authorities". That means that once the criminals are caught, all of their associates will be caught as well. Entire terrorist cells will be rooted out quite easily once anonymity disappears.

Is this good or bad? It doesn't really matter – it is inevitable. Anonymity is simply an artifact of our non-technological past. The only reason we have anonymity today is because, in the past, it would have been too expensive and too onerous to eliminate it. Today we can use technology to eliminate anonymity at low cost and with only small inconvenience. We will gladly deploy the technology to eliminate everything from petty theft to global terrorism. Given a choice between "anonymity" and "the potential to have a city blown up by terrorists", we will choose to lose our anonymity.

Once anonymity is gone, it is very likely that we will eliminate crime as we know it today. That will be a very good thing. According to this page, in the year 2000 in the United States there were:

• 1.4 million violent crimes
  
• 10.2 million property crimes
  
• 15,000 murders
  
• 90,000 forcible rapes
  
• 407,000 robberies
  
• 1.1 million vehicle thefts
  
• And so on...

In 20 years, people will look back at the level of crime and terrorism that we endure today with a certain horror, in the same way that we look back in horror at all of the deaths caused by things like smallpox.

Stand Watch For Security Robots

From the article:

"New security robots with the brains of a PC could give new voice to the clichéd TV catch phrase "Danger. Danger, Will Robinson."

Robotics operating system vendor Frontline Robotics and mobile robot hardware creator White Box Robotics in May merged to develop a bare-bones platform that could bring the cost of such embedded security robots down into the $10,000 range by November. Indeed, the base hardware components, which are off-the-shelf, are typically priced at $1,200, according to executives at both companies.

Today, robots with similar features cost $40,000 to $60,000, said Tom Burick, founder and president of White Box Robotics. The new technology will bring that price point down. "This merger is about the marriage of defense-class technology into this low-cost robotics platform, made from mature technology," echoed Rob Richards, COO of the combined company."

See also Robotic Police.

Guitar robot

Nice set of photos and a description of a guitar-playing robot.

Computers monitor summer school classes

From the article:

Hardly anyone is on the same page in this classroom. In fact, few students are even taking the same course.

With just 30 students, summer school at Cary high school offers 13 different classes. But the teacher is more likely to be a computer screen than a live instructor.

Cary, like all high schools across wake county, now relies largely on computerized lessons for students who need to repeat a class during the summer...

"If you miss something, the computer is going to go back and make you repeat it until you know it," he said.

That last sentence is extremely interesting, because it implies that human teachers don't do that. That is just one of the many reasons why human teachers are about to be replaced by computers and robots.

The other reason is cost. Let's say you could replace all of the teachers in the U.S. with computers. Those computers will cost very little compared to a teacher, and the computer will do a better job (as seen above). So it seems like a no-brainer -- teachers will be gone in the not-too-distant future. How much money would the nation save?

There are over 3 million teachers in the United States. Assume the average salary+benefits+SS+etc is $50,000 per teacher per year. That's $150 billion per year. There are approximately 100 million households in America, so that's $1,500 per household. If we replaced all the teachers with computers, your taxes would fall by something between $1,000 and $1,500 per year.

But once you computerize all the classes and eliminate 3 million teachers, you don't really need students to come to "school" any more. The repercussions of that could save a lot more money. And so on. The gist is that by eliminating teachers, each household would take home $1,000 to $2,000 per year in additional income, which is something that a lot of people can get excited about.

It will also mean that 3 million teachers are on the street looking for jobs.

Welcome to the Robotic Nation. See also: Robotic education, Robots and education and Robots and jobs.

CNN.com - Cameras put police ears to the ground

From the article:

Police installed video surveillance cameras around town and saw Chicago's murder rate fall to its lowest level in four decades. Now the cops hope to further cut crime by not only watching, but listening, too.

The city is employing new technology that recognizes the sound of a gunshot within a two-block radius, pinpoints the source, turns a surveillance camera toward the shooter and places a 911 call. Welcome to crime-fighting in the 21st century.

'Instead of just having eyes, you have the advantage of both eyes and ears,' said Bryan Baker, chief executive of Safety Dynamics LLC, the company in suburban Oak Brook that makes the systems.
The technology isn't just gaining favor in Chicago, where 30 of the devices have already been installed in high-crime neighborhoods alongside video surveillance cameras. Baker says dozens more installations will follow.

It simply will not be too long before these eyes and ears are attached to rolling or walking robots, and those robots have the ability to do things like deploy nets and shoot tasers and tranquilizer darts.

One thought that comes to mind immediately is that these systems are desperately needed in Iraq.

See also The future of robotic police.

Fujitsu Automation HOAP-3

From the article:

Fujitsu Automation announced on the 5th that they have begun accepting orders for the 'HOAP-3' small humanoid robot, developed in cooperation with Fujitsu Labs. It is Open Price.

HOAP-3 is the successor to the 'HOAP-1' announced in 2001, and the 'HOAP-2' announced in 2003. While the HOAP-2 improved upon the HOAP-1 in the area of movement capabilities, the HOAP-3 takes those same capabilities from the HOAP-2 and has been improved upon in external recognition and communication functionality.

The size of the unit is slightly larger than the HOAP-2; it stands about 60cm tall and weighs some 8.8kg. Since a camera, microphone, speaker, expression LED, audio recognition function, voice synthesis function, and image recognition function have been added, the unit is suitable for studies involving human communication, or hand-eye coordination research. A distance sensor, grip sensor, acceleration sensor, and so forth have been added, and all of these can be controlled from a PC using wired or wireless LAN.

See also Walking robots.

This one comes as a surprise:

Robot hand performs remote breast checks

From the article:

Life-saving breast examinations could soon be performed by a robotic hand that combines ultrasound with an artificial sense of touch.

The robotic breast examiner was devised by researchers at Michigan State University in the US. They say it will enable a medical specialist to examine women from a remote location, perhaps even from the other side of the world.

'Just because you're located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or even Botswana, it doesn't mean you can't have a sophisticated diagnostic or therapeutic procedure,' says Carol Slomski, a surgeon at Michigan State University, who helped design the system.

Just another step forward in the development of the completely robotic hospital.

Were the Good Old Days That Good?

From the article:

That symbiotic relationship worked very well for Tom Rath. From the late 1940's through 1973, productivity grew at an annual rate of nearly 3 percent, and incomes rose almost as briskly. Then came a horrific slowdown: productivity fell back to an annual growth rate of less than 1.5 percent from the mid-1970's to the mid-90's, and median income hardly rose at all.

The revival that started in 1995 brought productivity growth back to its old rate of increase, and for five years incomes also rose smartly. What happened next is tough for economists to explain. The productivity growth rate has stayed strong - rising at an average annual rate of just under 3 percent since 1995, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But starting in 2000, median income, adjusted for inflation, has grown more slowly every year - and this year the increase is almost imperceptible.

'There is no question that a huge gap has opened up between productivity and living standards,' said Jared Bernstein, a senior labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

"There is no question that a huge gap has opened up between productivity and living standards." As mentioned in Robotic Nation is happening right before out very eyes, this is the essence of the Robotic Nation. Automation and robots replace people, causing employment and wages to fall and the Concentration of wealth to rise.

Profits, Not Jobs, on the Rebound in Silicon Valley - New York Times

From the article:

In the last three years, profits at the seven largest companies in Silicon Valley by market value have increased by an average of more than 500 percent while Santa Clara County employment has declined to 767,600, from 787,200. During the previous economic recovery, between 1995 and 1997, the county, which is the heart of Silicon Valley, added more than 82,800 jobs.

Changes in technology and business strategy are raising fundamental questions about the future of the valley, the nation's high technology heartland. In part, the change is driven by the very automation that Silicon Valley has largely made possible, allowing companies to create more value with fewer workers.

"In part, the change is driven by the very automation that Silicon Valley has largely made possible, allowing companies to create more value with fewer workers." This is the essence of the Robotic Nation. Automation and robots replace people, causing employment to fall and the Concentration of wealth to rise.

Space station gets HAL-like computer

From the article:

Clarissa was designed with input from astronauts. They said it was difficult to perform the 12,000 procedures necessary to maintain the ISS and conduct scientific experiments while simultaneously reading through lengthy instruction manuals... Clarissa queries astronauts about the details of what they need to accomplish in a particular procedure, then reads through step-by-step instructions. Astronauts control the program using simple commands like "next" or more complicated phrases, such as "set challenge verify mode on steps three through fourteen".

"The idea was to have a system that would read steps to them under their control, so they could keep their hands and eyes on whatever task they were doing," says Beth Ann Hockey, a computer scientist who leads the project at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, US.

That capability "will be like having another crew member aboard", says Fincke. (You can see Clarissa in action in a mp4 video hosted on this NASA page.)

This is a direct implemantation of the Manna system. Computerized management of human beings will be coming soon to every fast food restaurant and SuperCenter near you...

See Manna for details.

Deep Impact fires its bullet at Comet Tempel 1: "Monte Henderson, deputy program manager with spacecraft-builder Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., said not even a right-stuff fighter pilot could pull off the flying challenge faced by the two Deep Impact spacecraft. As a result, both were programmed in advance to collect their own navigation data and to maneuver autonomously as required. "

Advanced Robotics E-Symposium

From the site: The International Federation of Robotics is proud to present the 1st International Advanced Robotics E-Symposium. This E-Symposium has been designed to stimulate knowledge sharing and global dialogue amongst advanced robotics industry professionals. World-renownwed experts will discuss the latest standing of human-robot interaction and user interfaces, advanced robotics technology transfer & investment, current & emerging applications, mass commercialisation and other cutting edge mobile, personal and service robotics topics.

Live online on July 6, 2005. Seems to offer free registration.

Korean RobotCop

The Korean uPostMate robot has the ability to shoot a net to stop an intruder, as shown in this photo.

See also this photo.

See also Robot guards.

The Penelope Surgical Instrument Server makes its debut

From the article:

the voice-controlled Penelope Surgical Instrument Server assisted in its first surgery the other day, helping a surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital here in NYC successfully remove a benign tumor from a woman’s arm (they don’t say whether she consented to have Penelope be part of the show or not). The voice-controlled bot can automatically grab surgical instruments when called for (”scalpel please!”) and then pick it up and put it back when it’s no longer in use, while at the same time keeping track of everything that’s used in order to make sure that nothing is, uh, accidentally left behind

See also this article.

Practice Kendo with robot

From the article:

The Manufacturing & Mechatronics Lab of Seoul National University led by Prof. Young-Bong Bang unveiled MUSA, a robot made for the practice of Kendo, or Japanese fencing after one and a half year of development.

MUSA is 163cm tall and weighs 70kg, moving like human beings to be a partner for Kendo practitioners.

See also Ballroom robot