Oh hello there, Internet enthusiasts and avid readers of the Reflector.  It looks as if I have gone and become engrossed in the world of technology and I have forgotten my manners.

My name is Kevin Rushworth and I am the new web editor for our student newspaper. I am in my third year of journalism at Mount Royal University and enjoy reading and writing. I am also the author of the fantasy novel Gaarn.

Wait! What is that noise? Is it that fluff that landed on your nose? Is it talking to you? No, that is not a who down in Whoville that you are hearing but me breaking it down to some hip-hop beats downstairs in the Reflector office or the dungeon as we call it. I really, really like gangsta rap music and hip-hop.

However, that is enough of me and now we are moving into hyperspace, into the realm of Hal, the Terminator, the Iron Giant, the Stepford Wives and last but not least, the fearsome Mecha-Godzilla. We are moving into the realm of the robot. My fascination with technology, especially of artificially intelligent robots, stems from my love of Star Wars. These next droids are indeed the ones that you should be looking for.

As we all know, the Japanese are leagues ahead of us technologically. They have designed more robots than most countries in the world and no; none of them look like Hayley Joel Osment or Robin Williams.

A recently published article on Time’s website asks us a pertinent technological question. What is behind Japan’s love affair with robots? Miimu, known as a HRP-4C robot just modeled a wedding dress by Yumi Katsura, a Japanese designer at Katsura’s 2009 Paris Grand Collection. This relatively different fashion show which took place July 22, 2009 shows us that the Japanese have moved their robotics technology from the lab into “every day uses.”

The Japanese have even went to such lengths as to create a robotic Hybrid Assistive Limb suit to help people who have been paralyzed. Robots have been made to bat balls, carry the elderly in assisted living facilities (it looks like the robot that gave birth to Luke and Leia in the Revenge of the Sith for a quick nerdy reference), play the violin and even be a robot supermodel.

On another note, a robot blob was recently unveiled at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. It moves by inflating and deflating specially designed pockets in its cellular like body. Although this technologically interested web editor is interested, I’m not too sure what it is used for.

Maybe The Blob is making a comeback in modern times and will destroy more people in phone booths. However, in all seriousness folks, scientists in countries around the world are seeing rabid advancements in robotic technology.

However, some questions have to be asked of this technology. Are people showing off technology’s capabilities? Are countries investing too much money into a robot that can walk down a catwalk, which is a concept and process that a humanoid is perfectly able to do? For me, I believe that robotics is still in the phase where people still view it as a cool “toy.”

There are also questions that have to be answered about the idea of artificial intelligence. Soon robots such as the Japanese robot designed to feel pain bring about a whole new concept. Pain and emotion are distinctly human features. When research showed that premature babies could feel pain, it brought about a whole change in the way hospitals ran maternity wards.

Will it be the same for robots in the future? These are only questions that I am bringing up and I am not about to jump on a “save the robot” bandwagon. However, in the future, there will be people who will bring up these problems.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-10/cronenbergian-blob-bot-ready-roll-or-rather-ooze

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1913913,00.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-498530/Japans-latest-invention-The-dental-training-robot-feel-pain.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzjkBwZtxp4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8bziuSFvW4

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1914267_1914263_1914262,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1900202_1889488,00.html

And for those people who want to see The Blob eat a poor woman in a phone booth, here you go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AASYGG7mrw&feature=fvw

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