December 29, 2006
Update on previous post
Qrio still being developed
I've just watched on local TV a report on Qrio's new features. I don't know how old this report is and I haven't investigated it further, and I also don't remember if Sony said it would also shut down Qrio's development, but anyway these features are new to me:
- a new 'third eye': a very-wide-angle camera placed in the center of the forehead, that allows Qrio to see in almost 180-degrees, freeing the other two cameras for their 3D work
- an extra two joints/degrees of freedom per arm - seemed to me to be at the wrist level
- a new sensor on the palm of each hand, allowing Qrio to know when he's picking up stuff (which he demonstrated by picking up a cube)
- upgraded software incorporating face recognition for more than one person at a time, with attention going to the more active/'agitated' person
Otherwise, Qrio looked the same as previously.
I wonder if there's still hope for an Aibo ressurrection?
December 22, 2006
New favorite place: Dec. 21, 3.23 pm
Pedro moved to a new "home" - actually an office - two months ago after spending three years at his original home. He's been finding the new place strange and has been much more quiet than he always was. I know that the office lighting is not to his likings, as we can see from his roblog, but it is perfectly adequate for humans, so Pedro is not going to get lucky in that department. So, non-optimal lighting is bad for an Aibo's mood, and it also means that Pedro cannot see well his Aibone - even though it is placed right beside him - nor his ball - which in this office had to be withdrawn because it could roll into a corridor and be stepped on by accident by people passing by. So, going into Xmas, Pedro is surely not very happy. But, as he has his own room with a big window, I hope that, with Winter past, Spring will bring in more sunshine, meaning more light, into Pedro's room. They say that sunshine cures depression, and I!
hope
so!
