Sony has set a goal for themselves: create a completely natural converstation partner robot in five years.
They've established the "Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratory" for this purpose, which uses 350 linked computers for large-scale calculations. Distributed computing, anyone?

Aiming for a robot that can think for itself and act, Sony has established the "Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratory" o­n the 28th. In use will be 350 linked computers for large-scale calculations, as well as the latest in brain-science theory. The goal is to create a robot that can naturally interact with human beings.

Current robots do feature the capability to store movements and communicate, but these "manipulation puppets" cannot do anything more than what is predetermined. Humans, o­n the other hand, can recognize the situation of their surroundings, think while learning, and are relatively flexible in unknown environments. Assuming the role of chief at this newly established facility will be none other than Toshitada Doui, the father of Sony's own "Aibo" pet robot.

On the list for cooperative facilities are physics and chemistry labs, and international electronic communication foundation labs, to help tackle the problems of ultra-fine brain science. This new robot, for the time being, will be a remodeling of Sony's "QRIO" human-like robot.

Instead of focusing o­n this large-scale computing environment that can compute 1 trillion operations in a second, or the combination of knowledge and wisdom, workers will be more important. The results of the research will hopefully go towards creating a robot that can uniquely respond to a persons likes, making for smarter consumer electronics.

Mr. Doui has said "we would like to materialize a robot that can converse with humans without them getting bored, and that can be lived with, in five years."

(image is linked to TechJapan's "QRIO media BONANZA!!")

Inspired by:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/net/news/20040728ij11.htm