The Energon Pub

read the article here, and post your thoughts on this new innovation in robotics and electronic toys. Are our Transformers toys at risk? Is our way of collecting and playing with toys in jeapordy due to the advances in Technolgy, or could we see someday, a fully animated and talking Robot akin to the movie "Toy Soldiers?" Only the future will tell, but I gotta say, i feel pretty threatended as a collector.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070913/ap_ ... /robot_boy

Here is the article from the Yahoo news site, there is also a video of the new toy:

"RICHARDSON, Texas - David Hanson has two little Zenos to care for these days. There's his 18-month-old son Zeno, who prattles and smiles as he bounds through his father's cramped office. Then there's the robotic Zeno. It can't speak or walk yet, but has blinking eyes that can track people and a face that captivates with a range of expressions.

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At 17 inches tall and 6 pounds, the artificial Zeno is the culmination of five years of work by Hanson and a small group of engineers, designers and programmers at his company, Hanson Robotics. They believe there's an emerging business in the design and sale of lifelike robotic companions, or social robots. And they'll be showing off the robot boy to students in grades 3-12 at the Wired NextFest technology conference Thursday in Los Angeles
Unlike clearly artificial robotic toys, Hanson says he envisions Zeno as an interactive learning companion, a synthetic pal who can engage in conversation and convey human emotion through a face made of a skin-like, patented material Hanson calls frubber.

"It's a representation of robotics as a character animation medium, one that is intelligent," Hanson beams. "It sees you and recognizes your face. It learns your name and can build a relationship with you."

It's no coincidence if the whole concept sounds like a science-fiction movie.

Hanson said he was inspired by, and is aiming for, the same sort of realism found in the book "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," by Brian Aldiss. Aldiss' story of troubled robot boy David and his quest for the love of his flesh-and-blood parents was the source material for Steven Spielberg's film "Artificial Intelligence: AI."

He plans to make little Zenos available to consumers within the next three years for $200 to $300.

Until then, Hanson, 37, makes a living selling and renting pricey, lifelike robotic heads. His company offers models that look like Albert Einstein, a pirate and a rocker, complete with spiky hair and sunglasses. They cost tens of thousands of dollars and can be customized to look like anyone, Hanson said.

The company, which has yet to break even, was also buoyed by a $1.5 million grant from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund last October. The fund was created by Gov. Rick Perry in 2005 to improve research at Texas universities and help startup technology companies get off the ground.

Hanson concedes it's going to be at least 15 years before robot builders can approach anything like what seems to be possible in movies. Zeno the robot remains a prototype."

the article goes on, but if in ten years Hasbro has to stop selling Transformers due to this trend, I will blame this guy and Zeno!! ....err...the robot not his real son...

Creating robots with expressions are an unneeded thing. They should make a robot that moves more realistically first. Sure, the Aibo already does that, but it moves too slow and it's reaction time is terrible. Robots don't need faces to be expressive, look at Shockwave, or even Optimus Prime.

Looks cool and all, but I don't see how it relates to TF toys in any way.

Its not like the fact that they have real soldiers, tanks, guns, ships, cars etc, stops people from collecting those.

Bonger wrote:Looks cool and all, but I don't see how it relates to TF toys in any way.

Its not like the fact that they have real soldiers, tanks, guns, ships, cars etc, stops people from collecting those.

I picture kids parents not buying toys that don't move and have facial expressions in order to save up money to purchase a Zeno, and any sub accessories associated with this concept. In short, sales fall off for toys that are traditionally without high amounts of motorized electronics, the market is all about robotics Versus Robots, and the future of Transformers dies because of it..I think this is vey relative to the Transformers toys, or any other, non robotic toy line for that matter..

what if Hasbro decides to follow suit of Zeno, and in order to do that, they have to cut costs, I. E. toylines ???

Honestly that thing creeps me out. But as long as people are still buying traditional Transformers I don't them going under due to this new trend.

One cool thing could that be a possibility is incorporating robotic features into the Transformers line. Imagine having an MP Prime with visual tracking, coordinated movement and limited programming ability? As robotics get smaller and cheaper this could be a very cool development.

lanzajr26 wrote:Honestly that thing creeps me out. But as long as people are still buying traditional Transformers I don't them going under due to this new trend.

One cool thing could that be a possibility is incorporating robotic features into the Transformers line. Imagine having an MP Prime with visual tracking, coordinated movement and limited programming ability? As robotics get smaller and cheaper this could be a very cool development.

that would be pretty sweet!! Imagine a Beast Wars figure, although I would have to potty train it on some Newspaper, and I don't know if I'd want an Optimus Primal, he could through his own poo at you.. and that would suck!

Maximal Primal wrote:

lanzajr26 wrote:Honestly that thing creeps me out. But as long as people are still buying traditional Transformers I don't them going under due to this new trend.

One cool thing could that be a possibility is incorporating robotic features into the Transformers line. Imagine having an MP Prime with visual tracking, coordinated movement and limited programming ability? As robotics get smaller and cheaper this could be a very cool development.

that would be pretty sweet!! Imagine a Beast Wars figure, although I would have to potty train it on some Newspaper, and I don't know if I'd want an Optimus Primal, he could through his own poo at you.. and that would suck!

that would be the funniest robotic toy ever, with fake plastic poo it throws at you, until you train him, and then you have to train him to transform like in the Beast Machines series!! Hilarious!!!

Concentrate Primal..concentrate to transform... no... wait!! not like that!! Arrghh!! Stop throwing it at me!!!!

looks like a retarded rusty the boy robot

that article seems creepy. but having real robots walking among us in the future would be cool.

tom brokaw wrote:that article seems creepy. but having real robots walking among us in the future would be cool.

I'd be all for that, but I'd prefer Droids like in Star Wars to that of realistic kids..that's just creepy

Imagine future MP toys has eyes that follows you around.

I read that article on the wire yesterday, so I'm not sure if it mentions this on yahoo, but the creator designed it to look like Astro Boy! Pretty neat.

If this affects our TF figs, I'd be majorly shocked! Like Auto Bot mentioned, the TF figures eyes would follow you . Imagine looking in a toy aisle and the Transformers would all watch you as their eyes followed you across the aisle...

That would be freaky & cool at the same time.

Also, I think Zeno won't be the end of TF, stuff like Zeno have come before & it hasn't left a dent on the TF universe.

that creepy little thing? a threat to our beautiful transformers? blasphemy!

I echo the sentiment....creepy.

I really don't see anything new about this. There've been dozens of expressive robot prototypes already, and all we've seen this one do is twitch.

ShiningKnightSilverbolt wrote:If this affects our TF figs, I'd be majorly shocked! Like Auto Bot mentioned, the TF figures eyes would follow you . Imagine looking in a toy aisle and the Transformers would all watch you as their eyes followed you across the aisle...

That would be freaky & cool at the same time.

That would be creepy, they would be watching you as you looked them over to decide which one to buy. Then as you walk to your choice, all their little heads would turn and they would gaze at you in silence as you picked up one of their brethren.


But I was thinking, if they do come out with this kind of technology, and it is cheaper, it won't be the end of Tf toys. Hasbro will most likely just put it in the Tfs as well. Now the part where it will get interesting will be when they create toys that learn. If they ever do it with Optimus Prime, thats fine. But toymakers, please give the thing a warning label if the toy in question happens to be Megatron or Starscream. Or if you go that route and then are boneheaded enough to make Starscream or Megatron 5 ft. tall as well. "Warning: May turn traiterous if mistreated."

Zombie Starscream wrote:

ShiningKnightSilverbolt wrote:If this affects our TF figs, I'd be majorly shocked! Like Auto Bot mentioned, the TF figures eyes would follow you . Imagine looking in a toy aisle and the Transformers would all watch you as their eyes followed you across the aisle...

That would be freaky & cool at the same time.

That would be creepy, they would be watching you as you looked them over to decide which one to buy. Then as you walk to your choice, all their little heads would turn and they would gaze at you in silence as you picked up one of their brethren.


But I was thinking, if they do come out with this kind of technology, and it is cheaper, it won't be the end of Tf toys. Hasbro will most likely just put it in the Tfs as well. Now the part where it will get interesting will be when they create toys that learn. If they ever do it with Optimus Prime, thats fine. But toymakers, please give the thing a warning label if the toy in question happens to be Megatron or Starscream. Or if you go that route and then are boneheaded enough to make Starscream or Megatron 5 ft. tall as well. "Warning: May turn traiterous if mistreated."

ever see the movie "small soldiers"? basically the same premise.

Bumblebee-otch wrote:

Zombie Starscream wrote:

ShiningKnightSilverbolt wrote:If this affects our TF figs, I'd be majorly shocked! Like Auto Bot mentioned, the TF figures eyes would follow you . Imagine looking in a toy aisle and the Transformers would all watch you as their eyes followed you across the aisle...

That would be freaky & cool at the same time.

That would be creepy, they would be watching you as you looked them over to decide which one to buy. Then as you walk to your choice, all their little heads would turn and they would gaze at you in silence as you picked up one of their brethren.


But I was thinking, if they do come out with this kind of technology, and it is cheaper, it won't be the end of Tf toys. Hasbro will most likely just put it in the Tfs as well. Now the part where it will get interesting will be when they create toys that learn. If they ever do it with Optimus Prime, thats fine. But toymakers, please give the thing a warning label if the toy in question happens to be Megatron or Starscream. Or if you go that route and then are boneheaded enough to make Starscream or Megatron 5 ft. tall as well. "Warning: May turn traiterous if mistreated."

ever see the movie "small soldiers"? basically the same premise.

But that's only in the movie. Not the toy.

Takara-Tomy are way ahead of this trend. Have you seen their new I-sobot?

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=-tuWnuI5V6E&mode=related&search=
http://www.isobotrobot.com/


It's surely just a matter of time before this technology makes it's way into transformers.

I'm sure some of you have seen this working robotic transformer:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=STQ3nhXuuEM&mode=related&search=

Here's a different one:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=zK8OjwMdn5I

And an Optimus Prime robot:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=BN55rXeIQ5g&mode=related&search=

I seriously can't wait for the day one of these goes into production.

Transformers should have that much articulation

unless everyone in the world gets another $10,000 hasbro wont be able to increase supply and demand with toys as advanced as those. a lot of programming goes into th most simple movements and transformations as complex as leader prime would be a pipe dream unless the thing was 10 feet tall

TF toys don't have to be that smart. Just few simple movement or gestures will do.

Take the basic bot, and slap lambo parts on it ala G1, and I'll buy three.