DPRG mailing list archives: DPRG: Re: androids

Mon Feb 24 19:09:48 CST 1997

At 07:20 PM 2/23/97 -0500, you wrote:
>To everybody in the robot group:
>
>I designed and built a simple but upgradeable android.  It
>looks strikingly realistic, like a human.  I named it Tara.  
>I have .jpg picture files showing different poses, one showing its insides. 
>If you would like to see them, I can send them attached to 
>an Email message, or by some other method.
>
>I have a couple questions for you.
>One is that I am looking for a good speech recognition system.
>Another is that I plan to start a business with this type of androids
>and I might need a dealership to distribute them, or some other
>situation.  This should be a popular and successful design.
>I welcome any comments or questions.
>First I will describe it better:
>It has many
>possible uses, such as a unique 'conversation peice' for parties (it can
>already talk, and can also frown).  Many other uses exist.  
>It is limited to relatively simple
>activities such as entertainment.  It cannot do precise or complex 
>things, it's not made for doing work.  It does look very good, and optional 
>extras will be developed soon.  This is not a cheap toy, it's built to
>last.  
>There are limitations; the biggest of which is that it should be considered
>for use in only one place, since it is too expensive to build gyros into
>it to enable it to keep its balance and walk by itself.
>It is still experimental.
>I will consider adding any options to it.
>
>Please tell me about any similar things you are working on.
>Thanks,
> John Bergeron
> androids at aol.com
>

I'd love to see the pictures.  Please email them.  I'm afraid I don't
have any sources for speech recognition.  Sounds like an interesting
project.  I hope it goes well.  You may want to post your query to
comp.robotics.misc also as well as some other robotics groups.  Hopefully
someone in our group will be able to respond to you soon.
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