Dear Visitor(s)
Take into consideration - What if there was no "FREEDOM"?
Then you see this Blog and are reminded that you would be
missing out on so many important things...Enjoy your stay and recommend to your friends to come and taste the "FREEDOM" Geminimay
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.
During a recent demonstration, Zeno could barely stand and had to be tethered to a bank of PCs that told it how to smile, frown, act surprised or wrinkle its nose in anger.
Robotics, Hanson believes, should be about artistic expression, a creative medium akin to sculpting or painting. But convincing people that robots should look like people instead of, well, robots, remains a challenge that robot experts call the "uncanny valley" theory.
The theory posits that humans have a positive psychological reaction to robots that look somewhat like humans, but that robots made to look very realistic end up seeming grotesque instead of comforting.
"Nobody complains that Bernini's sculptures are too darn real, right? Or that Norman Rockwell's paintings are too creepy," Hanson said. "Well, robots can seem real and be loved too. We're trying to make a new art medium out of robotics."
So just how did Hanson end up with two Zenos, anyway?
It all goes back to when his wife, Amanda, gave birth to their first child and Zeno the robot was already in the works.
They rattled off several names to their baby boy, but it wasn't until they whispered "Zeno" that "this look of peace fell over his face; it was like soothing to his ears," Hanson recalled.
"There was no way we could give him any other name. He chose Zeno as his name," he said.
That was just fine with Amanda.
"I thought that it was very endearing, very sweet," she said.
The similarities go beyond the name. Though Zeno the robot was built to resemble the animated Japanese TV show character Astro Boy , his plastic hair and saucer-shaped eyes bear a striking resemblance to the curly locks and wide-eyed smile of the real Zeno.
"So by coincidence they're both Zeno, and in other ways this robot has become more of a portrait sculpturally of the son, although it's almost coincidence," said Hanson, whose previous jobs include working as a character sculptor for The Walt Disney Co. "We didn't consciously sculpt this robot to look like him. It's the way things filter through the hands of the artist."
Hanson says one of the robot Zeno's biggest advancements is that its brains aren't inside the robot. Instead Zeno synchs wirelessly to a PC running a variant of Massive Software — the same Academy Award-winning code that enabled the fantastical battles among humans, orcs and elves in the " Lord of the Rings" movies.
Like some modern version of Geppetto's workshop, Hanson's office is crammed with rows of shelves stacked with books about robots next to toy robots and plastic skulls. Notes ranging from mathematical formulas to design sketches cover several white boards like high-tech graffiti.
There are scattered bits from Hanson's previous creations, including Albert Hubo, a white robotic body topped with a realistic head of Albert Einstein that has graced magazine covers and even shaken hands with President Bush.
Hanson has been recognized for his work, garnering accolades from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in 2005 and a "best design" award at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial last year.
But Hanson is most proud of the real Zeno, a rambunctious toddler who frolics with free rein among priceless electronics.
"If the robots become popular I suppose it will pose an identity crisis for my son," Hanson said. "But I think that the amount of love that he receives will make him feel like an individual no matter what."
![]() | ||
|
|
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Not only rappers fight at award shows: Kid Rock and Tommy Lee tussled in the audience at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night.
MTV VJ Sway said during the post-show that he saw Kid Rock walk up to the Motley Crue drummer, who was sitting next to Diddy, and "deck him." The incident was confirmed by Palms Hotel and Casino public relations representative Larry Fink.
Both Lee and Kid Rock are ex-husbands of Pamela Anderson, who was a presenter at the show and delivered her lines from atop a table in the audience. Although it wasn't clear whether the two rockers were fighting over something related to Anderson, it was hard to imagine another scenario.
Another eyewitness, rap producer Rich Nice, said although Kid Rock threw the only blows that landed - a backhand slap and a punch - Tommy Lee was the instigator.
| |
"When Tommy stands up is when Kid hit him the first time with a backhand," Nice continued. "And then Tommy Lee looked like he was trying to get at him to aggressively retaliate and then Kid Rock hits Tommy Lee again - bong. And then security grabs Tommy Lee in a headlock and pulls him off."
It's notable that security guards let Kid Rock stay for the rest of the show while Lee was dragged out.
The incident inspired plenty of mock rebukes from the hip-hoppers in attendance.
"They say it's only rappers," said Sway. "I told you rockers fight too."
Diddy noted: "It's not just the hip-hop artists that sometimes have a problem."
Jamie Foxx took it still further: "Stop all this white-on-white violence."
|
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Somewhere, Kevin Federline is laughing. An out-of-shape, out-of-touch Britney Spears delivered what was destined to be the most talked about performance of the MTV Video Music Awards - but for all the wrong reasons.
Kicking off the show Sunday night with her new single, "Gimme More," Spears looked bleary and unprepared, much like her recent tabloid exploits on the streets of Los Angeles. She walked through her dance moves with little enthusiasm. She appeared to have forgotten the art of lip-synching. And, perhaps most unforgivable given her once-taut frame, she looked embarrassingly out of shape.
Even the celebrity-studded audience seemed bewildered. 50 Cent looked at Spears with a confused look on his face; Diddy, her new best friend, was expressionless.
Some comeback. Breathlessly hyped by MTV as the evening's most anticipated performance, it became the most shockingly bad of the night. Jive Records might want to push back that Nov. 13 album release date.
| |
Thankfully, after Spears' dismal start and an awkward, off-color intro by comedian Sarah Silverman, the show rebounded with several exciting performances. (There was even more drama in the audience: an off-camera fight broke out between Pamela Anderson exes Kid Rock and Tommy Lee, leading Diddy to remark: "It's not just the hip-hop artists that sometimes have a problem.")
Timberlake's suite was packed with revelers, alcohol and eight lingerie-clad stripper types on raised platforms. Before he accepted the Quadruple Threat of the Year award at his suite, the DJ summoned the partygoers to watch the monitor and go crazy if Timberlake won.
He did, they did, and Timberlake said: "I want to challenge MTV to play more videos!" Then he was whisked away by bodyguards and disappeared.
Timberlake was the night's big winner, with four trophies. After accepting the award for Male Artist of the Year, he jabbed at MTV again: "We don't want to see the Simpsons on reality television" - apparently he's not a fan of either Jessica or Ashlee's MTV shows.
Meanwhile, Rihanna won the coveted Video of the Year for her metallically inspired "Umbrella," and Monster Single of the Year for her ubiquitous hit "Umbrella," and Beyonce and Shakira won Most Earthshattering Collaboration for "Beautiful Liar." Beyonce's shimmering gold dress barely contained her top; immediately after she picked up her trophy, she asked an assistant backstage to help fix her dress, apparently to prevent a wardrobe malfunction.
Other performers were appearing on the show's main stage, in front of an industry-only audience seated at tables, like at the Golden Globes. Chris Brown gave one of the evening's most extravagant performances - a dance-centric, eye-popping spectacle that channeled Michael Jackson, right down to a brief "Billie Jean" imitation.
Alicia Keys had the evening's most rousing performance, debuting her new song "No One" and then an inspired, choir-backed cover of George Michael's "Freedom."
While performances like Keys and Spears were delivered on the main stage, others were delivered in snippets: Akon crooned a bit of his "Smack That" before an award was announced, while the cameras zoomed in on performances from Fall Out Boy and the Foo Fighters mid-performance in their suites, giving viewers the sense that they had happened upon an intimate concert. Cee-Lo delivered a rocking version of Prince's naughty classic "Darling Nikki" in the smoky Foo Fighters suite (where a beer bong was in operation as Dave Grohl danced, sang Cure songs, played air drums and posed for snapshots); Soulja Boy was showing Kanye West his "Crank That" dance in West's suite.
Though the suites appeared to be chaotic parties, the MTV-cast revelers were carefully organized and strategically placed for the cameras. In another suite, the MC encouraged everyone to drink and keep the energy up.
Choreographed or not, Timberlake and Timbaland's joint suite looked like the most exciting - T.I., buffeted by pole dancers, delivered a rousing version of "Big Things Poppin'" while 50 Cent stopped by to perform "Ayo Technology" with Timberlake and Timbaland.
Not to be outdone, T-Pain and West danced high atop Las Vegas in one of the Palms' balcony suites as they celebrated "The Good Life." And Lil Wayne, doing double duty in the Fall Out Boy suite after opening the pre-show with Nicole Scherzinger, was particularly animated.
But the TV audience never got full views of those shows, though MTV promised viewers more via its Web site and other "remixed" versions of the show. That might have been the purpose: to whet appetites for repeat viewings by promising glimpses of what they missed during the traditional broadcast. And unlike in recent years, there was plenty reason to come back for more.
---
AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report.
---
On The Net:
|
LOS ANGELES (AP) - If the Goldman family has its way, it may soon own the sports memorabilia that O.J. Simpson is accused of committing armed robbery to recover for himself.
Since winning a multimillion-dollar settlement against Simpson in Ron Goldman's death, the family has waged a decade-long campaign to track down and claim Simpson's assets.
That effort hasn't stopped with the NFL star's arrest following a confrontation with memorabilia collectors in a Las Vegas hotel room. On Tuesday, the family plans to file request in Superior Court to obtain ownership of the sports memorabilia seized.
David Cook, an attorney for Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, said he believed Nevada authorities would turn over the items with a court order after Simpson's criminal case finishes. The items include Simpson's Hall of Fame certificate, a gold Rolex watch and the suit Simpson wore on the day he was acquitted, Cook said.
| |
Simpson was being held without bail Tuesday in Clark County Detention Center on six felonies, including two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon. If convicted, he could receive up to 30 years in state prison on each robbery count alone.
Another man suspected in the alleged heist surrendered Monday. Clarence Stewart, 53, of Las Vegas, lived at one of the residences that police searched early Sunday to recover some of the memorabilia.
Stewart turned over some of the missing goods, including footballs bearing autographs, police said. He was being held on six felony charges, including robbery with a deadly weapon and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
Another man, Walter Alexander, 46, of Mesa, Ariz., was released without bail. He faces charges almost identical to Simpson's.
|
Simpson's arraignment was set for Wednesday. Yale Galanter, Simpson's lawyer, said he was preparing a bond motion and will ask for Simpson's release on his own recognizance.
"If it was anyone other than O.J. Simpson, he would have been released by now," he said.
"You can't rob something that is yours," Galanter said. "O.J. said, 'You've got stolen property. Either you return it or I call the police.'"
The Goldmans hope the property never finds its way back to Simpson.
In 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica returned $33.5 million in judgments against Simpson in a wrongful-death lawsuit by the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman.
The jury awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages to Ron Goldman's estate and a total of $25 million in punitive damages, divided equally between both estates.
Tuesday's hearing was originally scheduled in connection with any money the Goldmans say Simpson earned from a video game featuring his likeness.
Despite extensive court hearings, however, most of the judgment has remained unpaid.
In 1999, seized personal property was auctioned off, raising only $430,000, more than half of it from the sale of his Heisman Trophy.
The house itself did not generate anything toward paying the judgment. A bank foreclosed on the home, put it up for auction and bought it back.
|
ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) - A former follower of a polygamous-sect leader sobbed on the witness stand Friday as she described the terror and despair she felt on the eve of her wedding at age 14, and said she became intensely depressed after having sex. "I kept thinking I felt like I was getting ready for death," she testified on the second day of the trial of Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Jeffs is charged with two felony counts of rape as an accomplice. Prosecutors contend he used his religious authority to coerce the ceremonial marriage and pressure the teen bride to have sex with her 19-year-old cousin against her objections.
In her testimony Friday, the woman, now 21, said she was shocked when she learned she had been selected for the marriage by Rulon Jeffs, Warren Jeffs' father, the church prophet at the time who is now dead. The woman said she pleaded with Rulon Jeffs to delay the marriage until she turned 16 or to be given to another man.
Her efforts to avoid the union failed, said the woman, who is not being identified by The Associated Press because she is alleging sexual assault. She testified that Warren Jeffs told her: "Your heart is in the wrong place; this is what the prophet wants you to do."
| |
She said she hung her head and cried in despair when pressed by Jeffs to say "I do" and had to be coaxed to kiss her new husband.
Jeffs then commanded the new couple to "go forth and multiply and replenish the Earth with good priesthood children," she testified.
In the FLDS community, marriage and motherhood are considered the highest achievements for women, who pray to be prepared to marry and follow a worthy man from a young age. But girls receive no information about their bodies, sexual relations or procreation, the woman testified, and she said she didn't even know sex was the means by which women had babies.
Married for at least a month before they had intercourse, the woman said her husband told her it was "time for you to be a wife and do your duty."
|
Afterward, she slipped into the bathroom, where she downed two bottles of over-the-counter pain reliever and curled up on the floor, she said.
"The only thing I wanted to do was die. I just wanted to die," she said. She did not elaborate, but said she later threw up the medicine.
The woman said she went to Jeffs to tell him she didn't like being touched and pleaded to be released from the marriage. Denied a divorce, the woman said she became extremely depressed.
The woman finally left her marriage and was forced out of the FLDS community in November in 2004 after she became pregnant with another man's child.
Jeffs, 51, has led the FLDS church since 2002. Followers see him as a prophet who communicates with God and holds dominion over their salvation; ex-church members say he reigns with an iron fist, demanding perfect obedience from followers.
Jeffs was a fugitive for nearly two years and was on the FBI's Most Wanted list when he was arrested during a traffic stop outside Las Vegas in August 2006. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Jeffs is not charged with being a polygamist, and the three-year marriage between the cousins was monogamous. Still, polygamy casts a shadow over the case.
Polygamy advocates have long contended that the freedom to practice plural marriage as part of their religion is a civil rights matter. Members of FLDS, which broke away from the Mormon church, believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.
The Mormon church disavowed polygamy in 1890 and excommunicates members found to be practicing plural marriage.
|
LAS VEGAS (AP) - O.J. Simpson says he went into a casino hotel room only to retrieve memorabilia that he felt was stolen from him. But police are investigating it as an armed robbery and named the fallen football star as a suspect Friday in yet another surprising chapter to his legal saga.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Simpson insisted there were no guns involved and that he went to the room at the Palace Station casino only to get stolen mementos that included his Hall of Fame certificate and a picture of the running back with J. Edgar Hoover.
"It's stolen stuff that's mine. Nobody was roughed up," Simpson told the AP.
Las Vegas Metro Police Capt. James Dillon said the confrontation was reported as an armed robbery involving guns. But he said no weapons had been recovered and stressed that the investigation was in its "infancy."
| |
Simpson said auction house owner Tom Riccio called him several weeks ago to say some collectors "have a lot of your stuff and they don't want anyone to know they are selling it."
Simpson, who was in Las Vegas for a friend's wedding, said he arranged to meet Riccio at the hotel. Riccio had set up a meeting with collectors under the guise that he had a private collector interested in buying Simpson's items.
"We walked into the room," Simpson said in the telephone interview. "I'm the last one to go in and when they see me, it's all 'Oh God.'"
He said he was accompanied by several men he met at a wedding cocktail party, and they took the collectibles.
|
A message left by the AP for Riccio was not immediately returned.
He told the Los Angeles Times he arranged the meeting after receiving a phone call about a month ago from a person who claimed to have personal items - including footballs, awards and photos - that had belonged to Simpson and wanted to sell them.
"Simpson was supposed to show up, identify the items and tell the men to either give the stuff back or he would call the police," Riccio told the newspaper.
The plan unraveled after Simpson showed up with about seven "intimidating looking guys," at least one of whom had a gun, he said.
|
"They (Simpson and his companions) took the stuff, and they left. What can I say? Things went haywire," he said.
Dillon said investigators were trying to untangle the web of ownership, and that some items had been recovered. He did not say which ones.
"We do have some conflicting statements, there is legitimate information that part or all of the items possibly are the possessions of O.J. Simpson," Dillon said, adding that would not excuse a robbery.
One of the collectors in the room was Alfred Beardsley, a real estate agent and longtime collector of Simpson memorabilia, some of which he has been ordered to turn over as part of a lawsuit.
|
Simpson said: "I didn't see anybody with any guns."
Bruce Fromong, a collector who testified at Simpson's civil trial, said he was in the room when Simpson barged in with other men.
"Him and some of his guys come busting through the door," Fromong told the celebrity gossip site TMZ.com. "They came in with guns, hollering and screaming."
Fromong, who reportedly tried to sell the suit Simpson wore when he was acquitted of murder, described him as a former close friend and said he couldn't explain the behavior.
|
Simpson was released after he and several associates were questioned, and he remained in Las Vegas.
"We don't believe he's going anywhere," police spokesman Jose Montoya said.
The Las Vegas district attorney's office will decide whether to pursue charges in the casino case. Both Beardsley and Simpson indicated the underlying issue was recovery of photos from Simpson's childhood.
The Heisman Trophy winner, ex-NFL star and actor lives near Miami and has been a tabloid staple since his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman were killed in 1994. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges, but a jury later held him liable for the killings in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Simpson has had to auction off his sports collectibles, including his Heisman Trophy, to pay some of the $33.5 million judgment awarded in the civil trial.
On Thursday, the Goldman family published a book about the killings that Simpson had written under the title, "If I Did It," about how he would have committed the crime had he actually done it. After a deal for Simpson to publish it fell through, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded the book's rights to the Goldman family, who retitled it "If I Did It: The Confessions of the Killer."
Fred Goldman, Ron's Goldman's father, said he was stunned by the news from Las Vegas.
"I'm overwhelmed and amazed," Fred Goldman told the AP. "If it turns out as it is currently being played, I think this shows more of who he is. He is proving over and over and over again that he thinks he can do anything and get away with it."
Goldman's lawyer, David Cook, said he would seek a court order on Tuesday to get whatever items Simpson took in Las Vegas.
The Palace Station, an aging property just west of the Las Vegas Strip, is one of several Station Casinos-owned resorts that cater to locals. The 1,000-room hotel-casino, with a 21-story tower and adjacent buildings, opened in 1976.
A company spokeswoman did not immediately return a call for comment.
---
AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Tony Winton in Miami contributed to this report.