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The robots are catching up

By Cyberian Muse on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 3:31 AM.

I've interviewed some prominent robotics and artificial intelligence specialists for a project that I've been working on for the past year, and one of the overarching messages is that robots still have a long way to go. While computers are better than the human brain at doing certain tasks, like calculating complex mathematical equations, it's the things that humans do without even being conscious of them that computers have the hardest time with. Visual tasks are one of best examples of this. A child can look at a picture of an elephant and decide it's an animal, even if the child has never seen an elephant before. But a robot would likely have problems with this kind of visual recognition tasks. Fine-tuned motor coordination tasks are another area where humans largely out-perform robots: We will instinctively put our hands up to catch a flying object, but robots are slow to act. At least they have been historically. The robot in this video seems to perform tasks that require very fine-tuned motor skills dependant on the visual system at a degree that could out-perform humans.  

Observe Ishikawa Komuro Lab's high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation. 

For more information, see Hizook.com.