By Dr. Nat

Whether you are Paris Hilton, running from the paparazzi or wishing you had a body double while you sneak out of the house or want something life-like for the carpool lane to beat the traffic…(Seriously don’t do that… it is a huge ticket!) But certainly everyone could use android at one time or another! I was at the WIRED NextFest, investigating all the new and amazing technology along side hundred of kids from the LA School District. They were all fascinated by Mr. Zou and his body double.

An android is a robot designed to resemble a human, usually both in appearance and behavior. In a previous article, I wrote about Asimo, the Honda robot. Asimo is fabulous, but it does not compare with the human-like aspect of the one created by Zou Ren Ti. When I interviewed his daughter Becco Zou and  Mr . Zou, I asked if the real Mr. Zou would please stand up- you’ll have to check this out to believe it:

Mr. Zou’s family business was creating life like museum figures. When Mr. Zou heard Bill Gates predict that the next hot field will be robots, Mr  Zuo had an idea. Of course his kids laughed at him, but he listened to Bill’s foresight. Bill has compared the emergence of the robotics industry to how the computer business began 30 years ago. Today robots have emerged into surgery performing machines, surveillance robots deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan that dispose of roadside bombs, and robot vacuums and robotic toys, but there is something larger on the horizon. And while there are many challenges to overcome in making a functioning robot for everyday use, Bill and Mr. Zou are the futurists who see that by developing robots via technologies such as distributed computing, voice and visual recognition, and wireless broadband connectivity, this opens the door to a new generation of autonomous devices that enable computers that we never thought possible. In fact, perhaps our computers will become robots! And robots will be our computers!

One of the reasons for the newest advancements in robots is because the price of processing power in a computer, say for instance one megahertz, has gone from $7,000 in 1970 to pennies today. The processing power needed for accurate voice-recognition (programs that can identify words well) has made enabled robots to move more smoothly and accurately. But a far greater challenge will be to build a robot/computer that can understand what words in mean a particular context. But as computing capacity continues to expand, robot designers will some day have the processing power they need to tackle issues of ever greater complexity. Even with their limits, robots today blink their eyes, shift their gazes and their faces can reflection emotions like annoyance and joy. I’ve put my order in for a Dr. Nat Double! And it can’t come too soon! Somebody needs to do the dishes! I’m counting on you Mr. Zou!