I am just enamored of this press release:
Carnegie Mellon University is sending two small bipedal robots to the RoboCup 2006 World Championship June 14-18 in Bremen, Germany, to provide color commentary for robot soccer matches — a first for humanoid robots.
The walking robots are perfectly capable of kicking a ball, but in this new application they will instead be moving their heads and bodies to track the soccer ball with their electronic eyes. During the championships, they will provide commentary for matches between teams of four-legged robots that were developed by Sony Corporation.
The silver, 2 1/2-foot-tall robots, named Ami and Sango, will receive wireless input from the Game Controller, the same system that communicates the referee's calls to the four-legged robot players.
The sober Sango and emotional Ami will explain rules from a robot's point of view, identify which team is advancing the ball and dissect fouls for spectators using synthesized voices as well as video monitors that display their commentary in both English and German text.
And though they can't match the vigor of Telemundo's Andrés Cantor and his trademark "GO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-OALLLLL!" they will celebrate by pumping their arms or making other gestures when either team scores.
-- "Carnegie Mellon University Humanoids to Provide Commentary for RoboCup," June 8, 06
While I am just delighted by the idea of Futurama-style robots tearing it up, the real, actual, cool part of this is how the robots are basically research tools to help us humans figure out how to use technology to coordinate real-time observation with reference material, analysis and reporting.
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