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TECHNOLOGY A23
Friday 4 December 2015
TECH NOTES Toyota harbors big ambitions for “partner robot”
Facebook expands YURI KAGEYAMA a society that’s aging at a of the auto and tech in- behavior, and lost sight of
sharing options to Associated Press faster pace than any other dustries on using artificial trying to be useful.
include live videos TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Mo- industrialized nation. Other intelligence to develop Honda officials acknowl-
tor Corp. is harboring big companies have jumped cars that can drive au- edge the company went
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Get ambitions to become a in, including Internet com- tonomously. Google Inc. is through soul-searching
ready to start watching live significant player in the
video of your friends and growing market for robots Akifumi Tamaoki, general manager of Toyota Motor Corp.’s partner robot division, demonstrates
family doing something fun, that help the elderly and Toyota partner robot HSR, or Human Support Robot, at the International Robot exhibition in Tokyo.
boring and even dumb on other people get around in HSR can pick up after people, bring an item to the bedside or open curtains.
Facebook. The world’s larg- everyday life.
est social network is testing The company believes it (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
a new feature that will en- can use its manufactur-
able its 1.5 billion users to ing expertise to become pany Softbank Corp., trialing driverless vehicles after getting targeted
use their smartphones to as crucial in a field it calls which is selling a humanoid and Toyota’s Japanese ri- with public criticism when
shoot video so other peo- “partner robots” as it is to that carries on simple con- val Nissan Motor Co. is es- Asimo could do nothing
ple can see what they are auto-making. Robotics en- versations. pecially confident about to help people after the
doing in real time. Face- gineers at Toyota currently Speaking to The Associ- the technology with plans March 2011 nuclear disas-
book began testing the number only 150 out of a ated Press at a Tokyo robot to start selling such vehicles ter in Japan.
live video option Thursday worldwide staff of 300,000 show this week, Tamaoki by 2020. Honda Motor Co. Toyota demonstrated a
among a sliver of its U.S. but it is plowing money into said Toyota’s robotics inter- was a leader in robots with one-armed partner robot
audience with iPhones. The research and develop- ests go back decades, in- its Asimo walking and talk- on-wheels loaded with
company didn’t say when ment. cluding their use in manu- ing child-shaped robot, sensors and cameras, ear-
everyone with a Facebook Toyota last month an- facturing at its auto plants. in development for more lier this year. The R2-D2 loo-
account and a smart- nounced a $1 billion invest- But it now sees the technol- than two decades. But kalike known as HSR, or Hu-
phone will have an oppor- ment in a research com- ogy as a viable business in critics say that effort got man Support Robot, can
tunity to broadcast live. The pany headed by robotics its own right. sidetracked by focusing pick up after people, bring
feature represents Face- expert Gill Pratt in Silicon Some of that impetus too much on duplicating an item to the bedside or
book’s latest challenge to Valley to develop artificial comes from the focus human movements and open curtains.q
online messaging service intelligence and robotics.
Twitter, which introduced It is already working with
a live video application Stanford University and
called Periscope earlier this the Massachusetts Institute
year. Another popular app of Technology on robotics.
called Meerkat also can be “We are preparing for a fu-
used to share live video.q ture in which people may
not be able to drive cars,
Nokia to close HERE or they may need artifi-
mapping deal with cial intelligence to support
German carmakers them to drive, and once
they get off their cars they
HELSINKI (AP) — Nokia says may need help from part-
it has received all regulatory ner robots,” said Akifumi
approvals for the 2.8 billion Tamaoki, general manag-
euro ($3.1 billion) sale of its er of Toyota’s partner robot
mapping unit to a consor- division.
tium of German carmakers, The Japanese govern-
Audi AG, BMW Group and ment is banking on robot-
Daimler AG, and expects ics as a growth industry in
to close it ahead of sched-
ule on Friday. Nokia’s HERE, Digital rights group alleges Google invades privacy
which includes mapping,
navigation and location SAN FRANCISCO (AP) in a way that enables the a provision guaranteeing “Our services enable
services, gives the leading — Google is being ac- company to collect infor- that students’ personal in- students everywhere to
automakers access to tech- cused of invading the pri- mation about students’ In- formation won’t be exploit- learn and keep their in-
nology that could eventu- vacy of students using lap- ternet search requests and ed for “non-educational” formation private and se-
ally be used for driverless top computers powered online video habits. The purposes. cure,” Googlesaid in a
cars. The Finnish company by the Internet company’s foundation saysGoogle is The foundation is call- statement.
originally said it expected Chrome operating system. dissecting the activities of ing on the FTC to investi- Chromebooks have be-
to close the deal during the The Electronic Frontier students in kindergarten gate Google, stop it from come particularly popular
first quarter of 2016 after an- Foundation, a digital rights through 12th grade so it using information on stu- in schools because some
nouncing the planned sale group, depicts Google as can improve its digital ser- dents’ activities for its own models sell for less than $300
on Aug. 3. Nokia, formerly a two-faced opportunist in vices. purposes and order it to and can be easily main-
the top cellphone maker, a complaint filed this week The complaint con- destroy any information it tained by Google over the
has increasingly focused with the Federal Trade tends Google’s storage has collected that’s not re- Internet.
on providing networks for Commission. and analysis of the stu- lated to education. But the way Google has
mobile technology. On Google disputes the unflat- dent profile violates a Google applauded the managed some of its other
Wednesday, sharehold- tering portrait and says it “Student PrivacyPledge” Electronic Frontier Foun- products have previously
ers approved its 15.6 billion isn’t doing anything wrong. that the company signed dation for caring about gotten the Mountain View,
euro acquisition of French The complaint alleges last year. The pledge, student privacy, but said it California, company into
telecom Alcatel-Lucent, that Google rigged the which covers more than believes it is following the trouble for violating its us-
which will make it a market “Chromebook” computers 200 companies, contains laws enforced by the FTC. ers’ privacy.q
leader in networks.q
