japantoday > technology Sony's Qrio robot attending nursery school in California
TOKYO  Qrio, a humanoid robot developed by a Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratories Inc has been attending a nursery school in California since March to play with children up to 2 years of age in an experiment to help develop a robot that can "live in harmony with humans in the future." Qrio spends time each day with more than 10 toddlers at the nursery school located in San Diego. Qrio is always accompanied by a researcher, who is in charge of making sure everything goes smoothly. While the children were at first apprehensive about Qrio, they now dance with it and help it get up when it falls. "The children think of Qrio as a feeble younger brother," researcher Fumihide Tanaka said. (Kyodo News)
Japan Today Discussion Post Your Opinion! Sony's Qrio robot attending nursery school in California
nomad99 (May 1 2005 - 16:32) ..."The children think of Qrio as a feeble younger brother," ...
... There's just something spooky about that. From the headline
kjunluc (May 2 2005 - 09:12) I thought Qrio was studying to be
a nurse. kjunluc
hinomaru bentou (May 2 2005 - 15:20) me too.
What a crock! Sony's Qrio robot attending nursery school in California
bleep (May 3 2005 - 17:01) Lol this sounds funny and cool at the same time. What will Qrio learn while being with children age 2? hmm? Maybe how to throw tantrums. grabbing, yelling,crying and bouts of Mommy Mommy i want that! I live in San Diego
sdspidy (May 4 2005 - 09:02) It's interesting that I have to go to a Japanese website to get news about my own city. There is absolutely no news coverage of this on local TV. American Media is probably afraid to announce it as the citizens here are too mentally stunted to allow a safe experiment, such as robots and humans interacting, to be conducted. Sony's Qrio robot attending nursery school in California
tnstaafl (May 7 2005 - 09:48) Americans to stunted to allow safe experiment of robots and humans to be conducted.
Whats one more machine to the amount of junk we have in our homes. There are already people using things that do everything except wipe us. No, Americans welcome anything that will take responsibility away so that later after a problem it can be said the computer did it. Take a look at some of our tech shows and malls. We have been interacting with robots and machines for years. Sony's Qrio robot attending nursery school in California
bleep (May 7 2005 - 14:47) Would be interesting to set one up with Bush and see what it learns from him... Or see What Bush learns from it. Sony's Qrio robot attending nursery school in California
tnstaafl (May 8 2005 - 01:20) Would be interesting to set one up with Bush and see what it learns from him... Or see What Bush learns from it.
Maybe they would both self-distruct. Post Your Opinion If you already have an account, please login.
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Qrio, a humanoid robot developed by Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratories, has been "attending" a nursery school in California since March.  Qrio is taken to the school in San Diego every day, and spends time playing with ten children under the age of two.  A researcher is on-hand to observe and document the interactions that take place.

The children were apprehensive about the robot at first, but have grown to accept it, and will help it up when it falls.  "The children think of Qrio as a feeble younger brother", according to researcher Fumihide Tanaka.

Sony's aim in this endeavor is to work on developing a robot that can "live in harmony with humans in the future".  The data gathered thus far have helped the researchers gain a better understanding of how robots should act around humans, in particular that balancing timely responses and unexpected movements are of integral importance.