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Mar 17 2005 10 Comments

Evil EMIEW?

Not wanting to be outdone by Sony’s QRIO and Honda’s Asimo, Hitachi has joined the mechanical melee and produced a robot of its own.

hitachi emiew

This latest member of Japan’s rapidly growing robot population goes by the name of EMIEW, which stands for, “excellent mobility and interactive existence as work mate.” The 130-cm-tall machine apparently has the ability to avoid obstacles, respond to simple voice commands, and also read the weather forecast. And whilst it has been developed for the upcoming Aichi World Expo, Hitachi officials have said they hope to be renting or selling such robots in the relatively near future.

Yet is it possible that all this talk of interactive existence and excellent mobility is merely a cover for more sinister activities? As during a demonstration in Tokyo on Tuesday, reporters were told not to touch the robot. Similarly they were asked not to use a camera flash from certain angles, and in no circumstances were they to cross a white line that had been marked on the floor.

Hitachi’s thoroughly unconvincing excuse is that such precautions are merely for safety, as EMIEW has only just been developed. But the look of absolute fear on this Hitachi employees face as he is confronted by the robotic rogue hints at evil EMIEW’s malevolent menace.

hitachi emiew

Categorized: Technology Stuff

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. J. says

    3/17/2005 at 9:47 pm

    Toyota would wish that they had developed Asimo. Asimo has been created by Honda.

    Reply
  2. Lee says

    3/17/2005 at 9:58 pm

    Thanks J.

    All changed now.

    Reply
  3. Rob says

    3/18/2005 at 4:34 am

    I for one want to be the first to welcome our new robot overlords.

    Reply
  4. Alexa says

    3/18/2005 at 9:53 am

    It looks like a garbage can with arms. At least Asimo is cute.

    Reply
  5. quaisi says

    3/18/2005 at 11:17 pm

    probably just remote controlled 🙂

    Reply
  6. Stella says

    3/19/2005 at 12:19 am

    …I love this Blog…:)

    Reply
  7. dodderyoldfart says

    3/19/2005 at 10:27 am

    Looks a bit like TinTin to me…
    http://www.tintin.be/

    Reply
  8. maniac says

    3/21/2005 at 3:32 am

    oh my god….
    people are now racing to make robots that have AI.
    maybe in the future, our world will become like in the anime “chobits”.
    robots will take control of people’s society….
    ( it may happens you know… )

    Reply
  9. nomad says

    3/21/2005 at 7:24 pm

    … It’s a scam! You know they got a little guy inside that thing!

    Reply
  10. E.A.C. says

    5/9/2005 at 12:25 am

    E.M.I.E.W. looks more like R2-D2.

    I suggest of evolving E.M.I.E.W. into more R2-D2-ish, whose tasks are repairing stuff, data storage, cracking programs and computer networks, mobile computer server, image projector, and so on.

    For something like a Protocol droid that interact with humans, I don’t think the current version of E.M.I.E.W. is up to the task.

    As for a garbage can with arms.

    That would be R2-D2.

    As for the sinister look in E.M.I.E.W.

    Oh well, at least unlike one version of the Aibo (I think that it was the ERS-220), Hitachi didnt’ have Kawamori Shouji as a contributing mechanical designer. People jokingly commented if the ERS-220 has a F.A.S.T. pack accessory. Interestingly, the X-AI (or was it the X-A1? Or XA-1? Or XA-I?) look like it, or is it vice versa?

    http://www.jp.aibo.com/aibostory/history/200111.html

    Back to E.M.I.E.W.’s sinister look, I guess that they need to improve on its forehead, but when viewed from the front, it doesn’t look quite sinister, it looked quite sinister though when viewed from the side.

    As for the P.C.s (Personal Computers) in “Chobits”.

    Well… They’re P.C.s, they’re more like Personal Computers, only some of them look quite human. For that sort of thing, I think that the comparison is PaPeRo.

    Reply

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