I heard about this on NPR as I was driving near Sacramento last Friday. SO CUTE!! I WANT ONE! In fact, those exclamations are the most frequent comments registered in response to a cool little robot, named Keepon, who has recently debuted on YouTube. Here are some links (there are more): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPdP1jBfxzo&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g-yrjh58ms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VKE_VoXzNI&NR=1
I'll bet you've never imagined that a pair of squishy, yellow balls could have so many cool moves. Maybe more than you. Certainly more than me. I love the scene with the other robots.
Here are some fun facts...Keepon's eyes are cameras and his nose is a microphone. He (seems like a "he") is dancing on his own, that is, he's been programmed to dance to music, or any beat, and will change rhythms and speeds as they occur, but the "moves" are random--not choreographed to any particular music. He'll also react to different stimuli, almost expressively. But, the most interesting thing, of all, to me, anyway, is that his creator, Hideki Kozima--the guy in the videos--is a psychologist in Japan, and is using Keepons in research to help autistic kids. It seems the kids respond to Keepon in ways they won't with humans, even familiar humans. But, judging from the responses of non-autistic kids and adults (I'm not mentioning any names) to Keepon, he strikes some kind of happy chord. He's cute and I want one!
Keep on dancing, Keepon! --Sandy
