Nice video, Arn--thanks. Saw a shorter version on the Japanese news last month, but it's cool to see a full dance. Ironically, being a control system programmer, the first thing I thought was "Are they running off a timer, are they synchronized to a transmitted clock that's synched to the music, or are they listening, and running off the beat?" Would be interesting to know more details about how they programmed that dance.
Now to get into a wild rant, just because I feel like it:
Cool technology aside (which does have many useful real-world implications eventually--cybernetics, public saftey, haz-mat jobs), these things say more about modern Japanese culture than the future potential of robotics. The Japanese are getting to the point where they have more empathy for their Aibo than they do for a real dog.
On one hand, the Japanese (on average) have an admirable ability to empathize, and this carries over to a surprising degree to inanimate objects (I've heard it credited to TV shows like Astroboy, but I'm skeptical that's the whole reason). On the other hand, they've been growing increasingly engrossed in a technological world, to the point that not only do you have innovation and mass acceptance of new technologies absolutely without reason or need (buy it because it's new, and does more--most other Westerners are familiar, but it's worse in Japan than anywhere else in the world I know of), but on the whole the Japanese are growing distant from anything BUT technology.
There has been and is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with this in artistic media, but it's subtle and without real effect so far. Basically, the Japanese are so willing to accept things like cute robots or pink flashing cellphones as an integral part of their lives that they're loosing the ability to relate to living creatures or see themselves in a natural environment at a frightening rate.
Heck, I live in the US where it's bad enough, and I'm a computer geek who spends more time in front of my monitor than I do outside, but the Japanese take it to a whole new level. At least I know how to tell the difference between the affection of a puppy and a well-programmed plastic automaton.
[end random armchair sociologist rant]
