Aldebaran Robotics has released a new video of their little humanoid robot, Nao. Designed to be an entertainment robot for the entire family, Nao has all of the bells and whistles that you’d expect to find in a consumer humanoid, including limbs with 25 degrees of freedom, operable hands, stereo vision, voice recognition and synthesis, and a programmable Linux OS. Nao is programmable in either a graphic environment or a code environment, and is supposed to be appropriate for all ranges of skill. Besides adding software and behaviors, you can also customize Nao’s hardware, and swap out his head if he starts to ■■■■ you off.
argosadditionssite.info/watc … s-nao.html
By the end of 2009, you should be able to buy your own Nao, for somewhere between $15,000 and $16,000. Why would you pay so much money for a humanoid robot who’s only 23″ tall? ‘Cause he’s entertaining, that’s why. I mean, he recycles ducks. Doesn’t get much better than that.
