Science & Tech » Technology
South Korea claims world's smartest robot
Agence France-Presse
Seoul, January 6
South Korean scientists said on Thursday they had developed the world's smartest robot able to think and learn like a human.
Unveiling their creation, they said the robot that looks like a small teenager wearing a blue and grey space suit was the first wireless network-based human-like robot.
It can become wiser through learning because unlike other robots, the device is linked with an outside computer through a high-speed wireless telecom network, and is able to exchange information with the server and respond quickly to real-life environments.
"This is the first network-based humanoid in the world," said You Bum-Jae of the state-financed Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), introducing the 150-centimetre -high robot weighing 67 kilogrammes.
"We developed this humanoid focusing on intelligence capability by taking advantage of networking technology in which South Korea is strong," he said.
Unlike already-developed humanoids whose intelligence capabilities are largely fixed with built-in circuits, the network-based humanoid relies on its outside server whose capacity can be expanded easily.
Equipped with visual and force sensors, the new robot detects movements and speech, then sends the data to the server for processing and receives directions allowing it to interact with people and the environment.
At the unveiling here, the robot replied to New Year greetings from a TV commentator and shook hands with him.
It can recognize its master, detect and analyse visual and audio signals, and people's movements.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.