New digital signs in the Tokyo railway system are noting the age and gender of those who look at them. Personalized ads are moving towards the real world.

Be careful if you’re riding the trains around Tokyo this summer, the billboards may be watching you. A consortium of 11 Japanese railway companies have teamed up with marketing researchers to determine who looks at electronic advertisements. This ‘Digital Signage Promotion Project’ uses cameras mounted near the computerized billboards to record the approximate age and gender of those who turn their faces towards any of 27 signs spread through the railway system. According to the Daily Yomiuri Online, the project started on the 21st of June of this year and aims to give researchers a better understanding of the demographics of those that pay attention to railway advertisements. It’s a cool idea, but I find the concept of ‘smart ads’ pretty disturbing.

It’s not the mild invasion of privacy that has me worried. For the record, the Digital Signage Promotion Project is for broad data analysis only. There is no intention of using the images of individuals faces. Our appearances are recorded when we’re in public all the time anyway. No, what gets me nervous is the idea that advertisements will start to ‘know’ things about me. On one hand I can appreciate this as pretty cool. I mean, computer vision can approximate age and gender now…that’s neat. And I’m a little impressed with how well ads can be shaped to customer behavior. I always get tickled when ads in my web browser offer me something I was searching for earlier, or when Gmail uses the words in my emails to suggest products (no, I really don’t want to eat spam, Google). But I’ve trained myself to ignore ads on the computer. Doing so in the real world might be more difficult.

That’s probably the point. Yet there are ways to make digital signage less aggressive and still draw people in. For instance, we recently saw a building in Tokyo that used matrix codes to allow people to see what those inside were tweeting. In other words, those passing by the building had a choice to pursue more knowledge, but weren’t forced to look at something they didn’t want to see.

Even if you did want to go big and flashy, you could avoid targeting individuals and work on crowds. Large digital projectors, which we’ve seen before, can turn the side of a building into an enormous canvas for electronic art. Scan a crowd for average age and gender, and you could swap out different ads to fit the group as a whole.

The true nightmare scenario (in my opinion) would arise when digital ads can recognize and address us by name (as seen in a clip from Minority Report below). Having a billboard shout your name and try to sell you something is horribly invasive and unsettling. The Digital Signage Promotion Project isn’t getting us there yet…but it seems like just a matter of time. Give it a few years and digital signs on the train may start offering me a personalized spam sandwich. Blegh.

[image credit: AFP]
[video credit: DreamWorks]
[sources: AFP, Daily Yomiuri Online]

Qosmo used augmented reality to share information about the N Building using an iPhone App. You can read the tweets of people inside.

If you’re not satisfied with projecting videos onto a building, or turning it into a giant pinball machine, maybe you’d like to be able to read its mind. Japanese company Qosmo, along with Terada Design have transformed the N Builing in Tokyo into an augmented reality display. Using a limited release iPhone application, people walking through Tachikawa Station can view the pixelated designs on the building’s windows and obtain up to date shop information, or even read the tweets of the people inside. Those designs, called QR codes, are a common augmented reality technique that allow the viewing device to know which information to retrieve for the object being viewed. According to the blog of Qosmo CEO Nao Tokui, however, you can get the same information using the building’s natural features instead of the QR codes. The N building experiment may be the first step towards changing the face of Tokyo. Instead of endless billboards and signage, we could have highly specified images on demand that inform as well as delight the eye. Check out the video of the N Building after the break.

Augmented reality goes hand in hand with GPS tagging to provide some great on the spot information sharing. We’ve seen similar techniques with the Dutch Layar application. The N Building is a unique prototype for building AR, and the QR codes were designed to fit into the architecture. One day, I’m sure we could see AR mobile phone Apps that knew the shape of every building in a city and could give you up to date news about their products, occupants, and history. Emergency news systems could be incorporated into QR codes on the surface of every fire hydrant or police call box. Plus, there’s endless opportunities for “Info-tainment”. All that, and you could shut off the stream of data anytime just by putting your phone down. That’s a much better system than a billboard.

[photo credit: Yuki Omori - TeradaDesign Architecture]
[video credit: Nao Tokui - Qosmo]

Ping pong playing robots with killer abs...must be time for iREX again.

Japan gets all the cool stuff. Last week the International Robot Exhibition (iREX) finished in Tokyo with hundreds of exhibitors and more than 100,000 visitors. iREX 2009 focused on enhancing market awareness for current and emerging robot technologies. As such, companies put their best robots on display and hyped their abilities and possible applications. If there’s a robot that’s going to make a big splash in the industry in the next few years, chances are it was at the exhibition. Check out some of the cool pics and videos after the break.

Humanoid robots received the lion’s share of attention. Industrial grade human-replacements such as the Motoman series, and Nextage were represented. Nextage actually helped open the exhibition, and Motoman put on a light saber dance show (see the videos below). Kondo, king of small humanoid robotics kits, had several advanced models on display. Kokoro had one of its creepy/lovely Actroids set up to answer questions and interact with visitors. The latest incarnation of TOSY’s ping pong playing robot, Topio, was taking on challengers and trying to intimidate them with its robotic abs (see photo below). In raising market awareness at iREX, the most common tactic seemed to be making robots more human. That strategy even extended into models whose shape is no where near the humanoid form. There were even industrial lifters and movers with happy faces on them.

Kokoro's Actroids are impressive, but they're also the epitome of robots entering into the Uncanny Valley.

The trend towards humanizing robotics isn’t new, and perhaps I shouldn’t feign surprise at its nearly universal application at iREX. These robots are on display to help them sell, and humans love to purchase things that remind them of themselves.

Subaru's autonomous lifter and mover. Why does a cargo bot need a happy face?

Still, as attractive as robot-humanity may be, it’s not the only way to move merchandise. In the following video from IDG News, we see Mitsubishi using Lego toys to help them promote their latest industrial robotic arms.

Even Motoman got in on the Lego building action.

And lest you think that humans get all the robotic fun, check out this next video (also from IDG) and the super cute baby seal bot at 0:27.

Ah, finally a non-humanoid robot: Subaru's floor cleaner. Of course, it's been around since 2006.

The bots at iREX are certainly impressive, but the vast majority are not new. Crowd favorites, like Nao, have been around for years, and make return appearances at every exhibition. Large commercial/public venues like this are just as much about displaying small upgrades in systems as they are about premiering new models. Perhaps what should really impress us, then, is the sheer number of robots on exhibition. If any doubt the breadth and depth of the industry, iREX serves as a persuasive reminder that the field of robotics is continuing to expand at an extraordinary rate.

And Nao it's time to say goodbye. See you at the next iREX.

[photo credits: Pink Tentacle]
[video credits: RobotWatchImpress, IDG News Service via NetworkWorld.TV]

A vibrating ring allows you to feel like you are touching a virtual teddy bear.

The first thing that we often give children to hold is a stuffed animal so it makes sense that the first virtual object that you touch will be a teddy bear. At the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo, developers demonstrated a ring that uses vibrations to let you feel what you see on a screen. This augmented reality touchy-feely experience is the brainchild of Tokyo Institute of Technology and the University of Electro-communications. The cute and cuddly teddy bear the ring lets you interact with is known as a Virtual Creature (VC) and is as much of the focus of the research as the ring itself. Check out the videos after the break.

When we talk about haptics, the transfer of sensation from the digital world to the real world, we often discuss the next generation of human-computer interfaces. Future hardware and software could become more intuitive when you can actually feel what you are working with. However, haptics are also a key point of entry into full sensory virtual reality. Augmented reality, with its blend of digital and real-world images, is a sort of VR-lite and it’s a good testing ground for a haptics device. While not nearly complex enough to give you the sensation of being immersed in a virtual environment, the haptics ring is a good first step into that realm.

Skip ahead to 0:42 to see the haptics ring.

The developers of the ring actually debuted it a little earlier in the year with a poster at SIGGRAPH. Virtual Creatures which interact with the device can be moved by the users pushes and respond to the type of contact. With light petting, the VC will display happy emotions. A strong push will cause the VC to avoid or react negatively to the user. This complex behavior for the VC gives an added layer of realism to the augmented reality interaction. After all, what use is having a finger that can manipulate a virtual world if the virtual world doesn’t react appropriately.

Of course, this ring isn’t the first such haptics system. There have been many finger-based devices, most of which use vibrations to transfer the sense of touch. Without a way to restrict finger movement, these systems cannot translate the full range of tactile sensations and users must still rely on visual cues to let them know the appropriate range of their motion. By focusing on creating realistic virtual creatures, the Tokyo team has helped enhance that visual cuing so that it feels more natural.

Human muscle control is a remarkable thing. Give your fingers the right stimulation and you can train them to recoil even if they don’t meet harsh resistance. This is partly how you can type on a keyboard lightly without pressing the keys all the way down. I’m confident that with enough practice and with some good visual guides, you or I could use haptics rings to interact with virtual objects successfully. We’d train ourselves to stop our fingers when we feel the ring’s vibrations. As such, the haptics ring is a simple and viable gateway into feeling VR (or AR) environments. Eventually though, we will want a haptics system that can completely immerse us in the physicality of a virtual world. When that happens, the boundaries between the real and digital will seem less important to the casual observer. Who knows, maybe humans will start to prefer the artificial reality. If that scares you, don’t worry, we have a teddy bear you can hold.

[photo credit: CNET]
[video credit: Gregoirecliquet, IDG News Service, Network.World.TV]

Shinoda Lab uses ultrasound so you can feel holograms.

Called the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display, the specially calibrated ultrasound emitter gives you the impression of physical pressure at the location of a holographic object. Because you aren’t actually touching the hologram, there’s no decrease in the quality of the image. Unlike a traditional speaker, the ultrasound can be focused at a particular location, so you only feel pressure at a certain point. This precision allows AUTD to let you feel individual drops of virtual rain, a bouncing ball, or even a tiny animal running across your palm.

I think it is hilarious and awesome that a key component of  the Shinoda Lab setup is a remote control from the Nintendo Wii. Two wiimotes serve as IR sensors that track the movement of your hand in the hologram space. In order to see your hand, you have to have a tiny marker place on your finger that is very reflective to IR light. As far as hand-tracking goes, it’s a remarkably simple setup. There are some obvious limitations you can see from the video. The size of the hand isn’t well preserved in the virtual space (probably because only one part of the hand is tracked in IR). Still, I’m sure Nintendo is overjoyed with the inventiveness of the Shinoda Lab. Especially since Shinoda just exhibited AUTD at the SIGGRAPH conference in New Orleans.

The guys at Tokyo University are really knocking it out of the park these days. First they made super fast robot hands play baseball, now they could let us play catch with a virtual team. I applaud their innovation and am excited by how many different ways it can be applied. I mean, the AUTD seems custom fit to be integrated into Augmented Reality technology, haptics, and human-computer interfaces. How versatile can you get?

Interacting with visual object is going to be a big development in the fields of computing, gaming, and art. Just looking at the AUTD from the video you can see how they could be easily adapted into a multi-directional 3D setup. When that happens, the AUTD will go from a novelty to a tool that brings about full immersion virtual reality. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing more demonstrations of Tokyo University’s current setup, including its limitations and what it sounds like. Damn, this stuff is cool. I’m going to go get some wiimotes, lasers, and a subwoofer and see if I can’t  battle some Klingons.

HAL suits make a Tokyo street debut

When you look at the employees walking in the video, notice how the operators seem to be neither leading nor following the exoskeleton. As we’ve said before, HAL is revolutionary because of its ability to read motor neuron impulses through the skin in order to move the exoskeleton with the operators thoughts. That’s right, the suit can determine what muscles you’ll move before the muscles know themselves. HAL is really merging man and machine to provide smooth and continuous movement with little worries for injury.

Cyberdyne is been up to a lot more in the past than taking a stroll down the lane. Personal trainer Takeshi Matsumoto used a HAL suit to carry Seiji Uchida up a Swiss mountain. Uchida, who is a quadriplegic, had long wanted to climb the mountain, and with some help from Matsumoto and HAL, he was able to get within 500 yards of the summit. Matsumoto’s no wimp, but carrying someone up a mountain is something few of us would ever be able to accomplish without HAL’s ability to amplify muscle strength by 2 to 10 times. The next step would be modifying HAL to read Uchida’s motor impulses and allow him to operate the exoskeleton independently.

As always, information about the availability of HAL has been spotty. Cyberdyne originally thought that HAL might cost less than $1100 USD per month to rent and maybe as little as $5k to purchase. Recent rentals in Japan, however, have been reported at around $2000 per month. Cyberdyne is now quoting a purchase price closer to $20k. It’s even unclear whether the Tokyo stroll was a marketing push to help renew interest in the exoskeleton. With a branch opening in the EU, Cyberdyne may be struggling to find the right market price to maximize its sales while still accomplishing its humanitarian goals of helping the disabled.

While Cyberdyne moves to get HAL out of the assembly line and into nursing homes, factories, and the great outdoors, I think we’ll see more awareness raising displays of the technology. The walk was nice, but it was only half the suit, and I’d love to see footage of HAL in practical applications. In short, I’m getting impatient for the cyborg revolution. Keep up the good work, Cyberdyne, and if you’re interested in having a blogger try out the suit…well, you just let me know. I’ll be working on my swagger.