15 Oct, 2008
Robo Japan 2008: Bandai’s NetTansorWeb, the first robot blogger
Posted by: brb In: Gadgets| Japan| Places| Robo-Japan 2008| Robots ()
The NetTansorWeb (NTW) doesn’t have Kitty-chan’s looks nor Plen’s rollerskating skills but it does one thing that other robots can’t: it blogs. This is probably the world’s first robot blogger, if you discount splogs that are created by net bots.
This harmless-looking robot might actually replace real bloggers in the future.
This Wi-Fi enabled robot has a camera on its head, cyclops-like, that is uses to take photos with and posts them in a blog. It can post short comments, too, I read. Pretty cool, no? Who needs paid bloggers when robots can do it for free?
Bandai’s booth in Robo Japan features this robot which takes the pictures of children and posts them in its blog with comments like “my, you’ve shrunk a little, didn’t you?”.
Posing with its blog.
The NetTansorWeb apparently has been posting on its other blogs as well. Among them are the “Overtime Blog” chronicling the unhappy lives of salarymen working late at night (with pictures of course), the “Growing Radish Blog” where it posts exciting 2-hour-interval photos of a growing radish and “Tonight’s Dinner” where it blogs everyday about the evening’s dishes. Apparently, it can also react to comments from readers like, “move your camera a little bit to the right” and take another shot. Pretty interesting.
NetTansorWeb taking pictures and blogging them.
Like a real network robot, the NetTansorWeb entrusts its heavy processing to a special application inside a Wi-Fi connected PC. This special application has over 10 functions, one of which is blogging (I guess another function would be twittering).
NetTansorWeb takes a walk.
The NTW can be controlled remotely, for live videos for example. It can send upon request a photo of its surroundings to a mobile phone. It can also read RSS feeds aloud from the Internet.
All in all, this is a robot that is worth watching out for. Especially for real bloggers whose jobs might be under threat from a machine that can do their work around the clock, twenty-four hours a day and for free.
Available from Bandai in December for 50,000 yen (about $488).
NetTansorWeb’s brother NetTansor (left) and cousin Keeroes (right), who is friends with Wakamaru.
