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MALE SPEAKER: Hi everybody.
Well thank you for joining us today.
The presentator today is a company called the ZMP.
It's one of the very interesting robotic start-up
coming from Japan.
As you may know, there are a bunch of robotic start-up in
Japan, but most of them are sticking on two legs robot,
and they were.
But the uniqueness of this company is recently they
decided to go into the consumer market and trying to
integrate it in daily life of us.
In this case, you see the earlier robots in the middle,
which was selected one of the best invention of the year by
Time magazine last year.
Then later they're going to show you the newest robot
camera, which has integrated iPod with WiFi, and hopefully,
it will be connected to some Google service in the future.
So here we have two people, the President of ZMP, and also
the main Business Engineer who talks about the company
introduction.
HISASHI TANIGUCHI: Hi everybody.
My name is Hisashi Taniguchi, the Founder and the CEO with
ZMP, Incorporated, a Japanese robotics company.
So we developed Miuro, the robot, which I am going to be
talking this afternoon.
So ZMP was established in January 2001.
And we have proposed our vision.
So creation with new lifestyle, useful and
[? joyful ?]
by incorporating robotic technology
into our daily life.
So [UNINTELLIGIBLE], I thank you for the opportunity to
present our company and demonstration.
So I will pass the mic to one of our
members, Mr. David Aliaga.
DAVID ALIAGA: Thank you very much, Mr. Taniguchi.
My name is David Aliaga.
I'm in charge of International Management
Strategy Offices in ZMP.
I'm going to be presenting our robot.
So first of all, the main theme of this afternoon is our
latest robot.
But to give you some idea who are we, we are going to be
brief introduction of our previous robot.
By previous, I don't mean they are not useful anymore.
They are very useful.
So this is basically our history, so I'm going to be
talking about this.
Our first robot was called PINO.
This robot was the result of our Japanese science and
technology project, which was technically transferred to us
and we started commercializing.
And after that, we made a complete redesign of the
interior, so that became PINO version two.
And the year, we have actually redesigned it gain, and now
it's much more stable, and it's been a version three.
As you can see, PINO has a very cute exterior.
That was objective of both the projects,
and also of our company.
We believe that robots--
you see robot in any other companies or in any other
places and you see robots that are very clumsy and with a lot
of cables or whatever.
And we believe that personal robots have to have a good
exterior, a pleasurable exterior, because they're
going to be interacting with us, with humans.
And so we want to be pleasure.
I mean it's a pleasurable experience to
have them and to--
well, not to talk with them, but maybe in the future.
So that's why this very cute exterior was
created for the robot.
And actually it became very popular in Japan, appear in
television.
Commercials like NTT Docomo mobile cell phone.
UCC, which is coffee company.
And also a video of a Japanese pop star, Utada Hikaru.
Our robot appear in the video as well.
And also appear in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
So he, as a character, became very popular.
Our second robot is called Nuvo.
And actually we have one over here.
So I'm going to maybe be ready for
interacting me and Nuvo together.
So hello Nuvo.
He's shy at first.
ROBOT NUVO: Hello Google.
How are you today?
DAVID ALIAGA: See?
When he enters into like a little
one-off, then that's OK.
What else can you do, Nuvo?
Maybe he's a little tired.
Oh, he's doing little exercise.
Opposite, opposite.
You know, he actually does more exercise than me.
Little lazy, you know.
Say hello to everybody.
Please say hello to Nuvo as well.
All right.
So as you can see, we wanted to make a robot with a stylish
design and cutting edge technology that can dance
while playing music, announce the time, become a cameraman.
I don't know if you have noticed, it has a camera to
take pictures for you.
And also, it can be used by a cell phone.
So he can keep security at home because you know what's
happening at home when you're not there.
And as you see also, receive a lot of exposure.
Actually, you can see over there with me when he came to
Japan to promote the movie I, Robot.
Yeah, Nuvo was there.
Well, he wanted to be there.
And also, New York Times, up here, New York Times, and
magazine Time actually nominated one of the coolest
inventions of 2005.
It has several cool features.
First of all, he was developed in collaboration with several
creative people.
Very creative people like, for example, Ken Okuyama who is a
very famous, and is the designer Ferrari or
Pininfarina.
And several other artists that you can see over there.
Also, well, not only artists, it was also
the technical people.
Several companies, several technical companies, Renesas,
and for example, Seiko.
The robot shoes, because as you can see it has shoes, was
developed by Mizuno, which is a Japanese company as well.
So it was a huge effort, and we were very, very happy to
develop something like this.
But also, I'm going to present another robot.
This robot's called Nuvo, and there is e-Nuvo, meaning
educational Nuvo.
Because this robot is for everyday people, for people
who want to play, interact, use the music, voice
recognition, all the features.
But you know there are people who want to
learn how it works.
I mean why does it walk, why is it moving?
So that's why we develop this robot over here.
You can see, the lower part is very similar.
So I mean putting aside the camera and the voice
recognition features, with his robot you can learn all areas
related to robotics, like electronics, mechanics,
control theory, programming.
And these different than other robots.
This is a totally open system.
So we give you our code, how we do it, how did it.
We explain it, software, everything.
So this is actually being used in Japan.
Very much being used in Japan.
You can see there in the photograph.
That's the photograph of a university in Japan in which
they are using these robots for--
I mean one robot, one student.
They're learning robotics over there.
And also, outside Japan, we have some clients in Mexico,
some clients in Singapore, some clients in Taiwan, I
believe some in the United States, but
I'm not really sure.
I put the Mexico one, because first of all,
they are very cute.
They put this Mexican hats over there.
And second of all, they are champions because they went to
Korea and they won a robotic contest in
Korea maybe in 2004.
So they deserve a place to be there.
And plus they are cute.
Those are the robots we have been developing.
The philosophy of our robots is, as I said, they have to be
robots that are near the human.
It's not like something esoteric or anything.
You have to have a very pleasurable exterior or
interface with a human.
And change somehow the lifestyle of us, of humans.
So forget about this.
We are ready to talk about Miuro, our latest robot, which
is a little bit different, a little bit different.
So Miuro is short for Music Innovation based on Utility
Robot Technology.
But that's very, very, long.
And what we want it to be is, as you can see it in the
screen, we want it to be my personal DJ.
That's our objective, our dream, our vision.
So without further delay, I think maybe we would like to
see a little bit of the robot.
Is the camera OK?
All right.
So let's see small demonstration of our robot.
As you can see, this is not a bipedal, right?
And it's dancing.
[SIDE CONVERSATION]
DAVID ALIAGA: So it's dancing, and maybe you want to dance
with it, right?
So because I want to keep with the rhythm, right?
And you know, I have to tell you, the dance is not just
some part that we programmed because we're crazy.
No.
It's just the [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
of the dance is a tone with the music, which is much
better than me I can say.
All right?
Oh man, I can't stop.
See, over there too.
All right.
So this is our musical robot, our Miuro.
I'm going to be explaining a little bit
what is inside Miuro.
Why is it different?
Because you see Miuro, OK, it's moving, it's cute.
But OK, it's a musical player.
Nothing else.
Well, no.
I mean if you think so, that's [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
We don't want it to be-- and I'm going to be repeating this
the whole afternoon, so please, you will get used to--
We don't want it to be just a musical player, one more of
many in the market.
That's not our objective.
But first of all, I'm going to be talking
what's inside our robot.
We want to integrate into the robot both musical technology
and robotics technology.
And we have developed this robot.
I mean he was a co-effort together with Kenwood, which
is a Japanese company for very specializing music.
So first of all, talking about only sound of music, it has
three characteristics that make it a very good, high
quality sound.
I think we were going to be listening soon.
An example of how good the sound is.
The first thing that you see when you see the
robot is it's fear.
So even for Kenwood, it was a challenge.
They have never designed speakers such as these.
There is goes.
Now listen.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
That's a very good reproduction for its size.
It's the best. And you know first, as I said, the shape,
this is very good shape, even though it was a
challenge for Kenwood.
You know, the experts in musical technology said that
that's actually the best shape that a speaker can have. So
actually, it contributed to the quality of the music.
The second thing is we divide the
speakers into four channels.
You can see here, two over here for the low tones, and
two over here for the high tones.
So we didn't want to sacrifice the high tone reproduction,
for example, just to make sure it works.
It actually works with high tone, with low tone.
And the third thing that you can see in the systematic in
the presentation is that there's a double enclosure.
Meaning that inside the robot, there is a double enclosure,
as I said, with the objective that the music, the sound,
comes from here, not from some weird song from here, and
there's the reverberation and it
would be awful to listening.
So these all are qualities of our music technology.
Of course, as I said, it was a co-development with Kenwood.
The other thing, apart from music--
oh, first of all, I'm going to tell you what kind of music
can he play.
First of all, he can play iPod.
We aer going to see-- where's the iPod over here.
It has a dock--
not a dock, but a place to put the iPod over here.
Can you see?
And this supports third-generation iPods, so not
only the one that's over there.
Also, with iPod you can insert the iPod and see the contents
of your iPod totally, when it's connected, the
Miuro with the iPod.
Also, you can enjoy your iTunes music library or your
Windows Media Player music library by using this Miuro
connected through out wireless LAN with a PC.
Finally, I mean last but not least, you can use it to play
into a radio.
I have to point for you that you don't need a PC for that.
We're going to see the reproduction--
I don't know if you can see it very clearly with a camera.
But anyway, we are going to see how this
works a little bit.
First of all, let's suppose you get your Miuro, you bring
it let's say here.
You bring it here.
And then you start searching for wireless
networks that there is.
And here there's Google and Google Guest. I think we are a
guest, so we are guests.
So OK.
Then let's do it with that.
Google guest. Once it's on, then we can already play some
internet radio.
What I wanted to convey was that it doesn't need a PC, it
needs just the wireless LAN connection so that the robot
can play your favorite music.
I mean your favorite, how do you call it, radio station.
Those three are iPod, internet radio, and iTunes, and Windows
Media Player are the things that this robot can play.
And the schematics, the electronics inside, first of
all, there's the robot module, which is in charge of
controlling all the robotic features, like the display,
the gyro acceleration sensor.
Oh, I didn't mention the gyro accelerator.
I'm going to be mentioning it later.
Distance sensors, motors, everything related with
robotic technology.
There is the audio model, which is in charge of
everything related with audio, the tweeter, the woofer.
And also sound affects, everything that assures a good
reproduction of music.
And the multimedia model was in charge of the camera.
Oh, I didn't mention it has a camera.
Full of surprises, as you can see.
And the wireless LAN.
So now talking about motion.
Because we have talked a lot about music.
Now we are going to be talking about motion.
This robot can perform several things.
You already saw the dance.
I was pointing out while dancing--
sorry, my enthusiastic dance--
but I was pointing out that this dance is not just some
pretty [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
patterns that they just--
For example, I don't know.
You play something really, really funky, and then after
that starts doing some kind of ballet or something.
I mean there is a synchronization between the
music, the rhythm of the music and the movements.
Of course, you can somehow select different basic
patterns, but then after that, there's a dynamical
synchronization.
See?
You can see there.
Now we're going to be directing a little bit right.
Look, look, look, I'm not touching it.
I'm not touching it.
See?
See, I'm not touching it.
Now look, look, look.
See?
I'm not touching it.
So there are sensors for object
detection of your robot.
And also for edge detection here.
So that's what it makes several features that we
believe are very, very interesting in terms of dance.
Also, there is another feature.
I'm going to be telling you that.
There's a sensory feature.
Now you can see, there's a bottom in the remote control,
and pressing that button makes that robot sensor through you.
And you can move, and the robot will follow you and see
where are you going, and you keep moving, and you keep
moving and the robot will keep looking for you.
Right?
So Miuro will try to face you, which is to achieve the
favorite spot for listening quality.
Excellent.
All right.
Now, you see it's moving and moving and going around and
whatever, but the sensor should be moving also, and
maybe the iPod would be woof, over there.
So why he doesn't do this?
We incorporated also balancing technology.
That means even though that the robot is moving and moving
all the time, the sensor, it's kept stable, stabilized,
because we use the gyro acceleration sensors
that keep it stable.
So that, for example, that the iPod is always in
a horizontal position.
So these are some features that this robot has.
There's one more feature that I want to talk about.
Actually, it's one of the features that we are more
enthusiastic about.
And later you are going to see why, why we're interested in
this feature.
And this is feature is called autonomous motion.
Autonomous motion means--
it's name said, autonomous is saying that the robot will
move by itself, I mean autonomously.
I mean OK, OK.
We will obey your orders, of course, with the remote
control, of course, because you don't want a robot to be
out of control, right?
So it will obey your orders, but other than that, it will
act by itself.
All ready?
All right.
So let's suppose I'm going explain this later, but let's
suppose you have a favorite listening point.
And we are going to be moving--
I mean you move the listening, the robot to the favorite
listening point.
For example, over there.
OK.
I like it there.
I like it there.
So you want to record it's listening point.
And you record it into the remote control.
You select a location and you say, OK, you
want to record it?
And yes, it has been successfully saved.
So now this listening point is into your remote control, and
then the robot keeps doing what it has to do.
Move, dance, and do stuff.
And you also do your stuff.
And then maybe later that day, I say, I want to listen to
music in my favorite spot.
So all you have to do is just press the button which it is
has been record.
And then just go and have a cappuccino.
Because the robot will start calculating its route to that
listening spot that you liked by itself.
I mean you don't need to direct it, you don't need to
do anything.
So now why do we went to do this?
It's not because we have fans.
Some engineers in our company, they say, hey, why don't we
put some autonomous motion, that would be cool.
And then you put it and then you don't know why.
No, but actually there is a reason why we
want autonomous motion.
First of all, as I said before that I was going to be
repeating it all the afternoon.
We don't want this Miuro [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
to be just another musical player, one of the many that
are in a market.
The difference between our Miuro, at least our vision of
Miuro, and other musical players is that with a musical
player you are the user, you go to the musical player.
OK, I want to play this.
And you're listening, and that's a machine.
But we want to achieve not just a machine.
We want to achieve what it says in the beginning, your
personal DJ.
Some kind of a partner to you that can finally be somehow,
to some degree, independent from you.
I mean you don't have to be doing everything all the time.
Of course, there's a long way for that.
But the first step into this direction is
the autonomous motion.
Let's suppose I'm going to put a scenario for this.
Let's suppose you wake up in the morning and you have to be
in the mood for going work, right, because if you are
late, your boss will get angry, right?
Anyway, so you need some kind of music that wakes you up,
and actually you need near your bed.
So OK, you're sleeping in your bed, and then the robot comes
and plays your music, wakes you up.
And say OK, I'm up.
The in the afternoon, you have to do some overwork, maybe
after coming from the company or after returning home, but
you have to do some a little coffee before to
gain a little energy.
So you want the robot near you to be playing
another kind of music.
You make your coffee.
And then after you finish your work maybe at night when
you're a little bit more relaxed, then you just go and
sit down and read a book, and you want some kind of soothing
music maybe near the couch.
So those are, for example, three different favorite
listening positions.
And you want the robot to--
I mean you come home, tired, and you don't want to be
directing your robot, moving your robot.
You just say OK, go there.
And then the robot [HUM]
goes there and starts playing your music.
So that's the idea.
It has to be something that helps you, not something that
bothers you.
How do we do this?
First of all, inside the robot, there is first of all,
self-localization based on the multiple sensors it's got,
including the camera.
I didn't show you the camera.
Oh, it's over here, the camera.
There's the camera over here.
So the camera is one of the sensors that are used for
self-localization.
Of course, we have also sensors in the wheels for
using for odometry.
So it's kind of a multi-sensor technology.
Also, the robot has map-making capabilities, meaning that you
put it in your room and starts making a map of your room.
So finally, that's how it self-localizes itself in your
room because it has a map of your room, knows more or less
where are your living points.
But the camera is very important because OK, if you
put it in a floor and it keeps moving and recording how much
it is long here and there, OK, you can use still
odometry and your map.
Well, OK, that can work.
But what happen if I don't know, one of your kids comes
and oh, I want to play.
So they take it and put it over here.
That's it.
Your odometry already has [? died. ?]
So that's why we also incorporate the camera,
because one view want it to be localized again, is use the
camera to search where it is, and finally finds in which
point of the map he is.
Of course, if you take it, I don't know.
You take it to New York, then that's the end of him.
Yeah, don't do that.
So what we want to achieve with this is customization
based on the user case.
That's what we want to achieve.
Autonomous navigation to favorite listening positions.
One example of this, for example, with your remote
communication, when you have a mobile phone, and you're
outside home, and then you left your kids in--
I don't know if all of you or many of you or maybe none of
you have kids--
I'm sorry.
I'm saying kids, I'm just making an assumption.
But anyway, first of all, you left your kids at home.
And then you say oh, I wonder what they are doing.
So you, again, send only the order and the robot will go to
where your kids are usually playing.
Go there, take a photograph, send you the photograph.
Everything's all right?
OK.
And play some music.
And for you that doesn't have kids, that can also works for
your boyfriend or for your girlfriend.
Just check what's happening and play some music to have
some reason--
I just wanted to play some music for you.
And one of the mechanical designs over here, basically,
very, very fast. I mean, you can see here that there is the
display over here, the iPod dock.
Over here there are the distance sensors.
And the gyro can be seen because
it's very in the center.
And in the back view, in the rear view, there's still the
distance sensors, and the cameras I told you over there.
So now, we are talking so much about the robot and maybe
you're wondering, OK, but why these guys are here?
What's our relationship with this, or maybe they just want
to say hey, in Japan we're doing these cool things, or at
least what we think they are cool things.
Well, I'm going to be sharing with you, telling you a little
bit what we want to achieve with all of this.
I have already told you a little bit.
Basically, you have a robot there, which it has some
autonomous motion features.
But what you want to achieve in the end is my personal DJ.
That's what we want to achieve.
How can I say, a physical agent.
Should I say that?
I don't know.
I mean a creature, Miuro.
Maybe even a robot, we can call you the robot, that
actually helps you to have a better and more joyful
lifestyle, as Mr. Taniguchi said.
Not something that bothers you, not something that you
oh, another one.
Another thing that I have to learn how it works and
everything.
No, I mean it has to be something that lets you enjoy
music in a different way.
For example, my personal DJ, Miuro, will let you enjoy your
favorite music anywhere, anytime, in the place you like
it, at that time you like it, the music you like, and the
moment you like.
And what's the idea here?
I already talk about the bedroom, the living room, how
they move autonomously.
But finally, with our technology, we can build what
we call a lifelog of the user tastes.
At what moment he likes it, what kind of music, what
[UNINTELLIGIBLE].
I don't know.
I mean the taste of the user.
And then finally, even sharing it with all your personal
lifelogs, and maybe find something like, for example, I
don't know.
You like classical rock, and then maybe if you like the
Beatles than maybe he will find a little Rolling Stones.
I think I'm revealing my age over here.
Sorry.
But anyway, so that's basically what we want to
achieve in my personal DJ.
It hasn't been achieved yet.
It's not achieved yet.
So to do this, of course, there's much more technology
that has to be applied on this robot.
But why are we here?
I mean first of all, we have been kindly invited to give a
talk in Google.
And second of all, we're aware that, for example, we will
live locks, it implies a lot of data, user taste.
And this Miuro, and the other Miuro, and the other Miuro,
it's a huge quantity of data.
And we dream of the robot being
adaptable to the user tastes.
And we know, of course, Google, that kind of
technology that you are working with.
So I imagine how many things--
I mean now we can do some autonomous motion, but how
many other things can be achieved if we put our heads
together or something like this?
We built a new interface with contents, and we provide a
customization with the user taste--
how, who, where, when, what kind of music.
And with technology for searching and several other
kinds of technology, if they are put together, then the
personal DJ that can be enjoyed by both me and you,
even can surpass anybody's dream.
So that's basically why we want to share it with you.
We wanted to provide, as I said, a new interface, a
physical interface in which, for example, Google technology
can work, I mean a new way of doing things.
Well, I think that's the end of my presentation.
Thank you very much, and as I said, I hope I was able to
share with you what our dreams and our vision in our company
are from here to the future.
Thank you very much.