During President Obama's visit to Japan, the U.S. head of state spent a few minutes playing ball with a robot. Honda's prototype humanoid robot strutted its stuff showing Obama a thing or two about Japanese robots.
During the president's visit to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, the diminutive Asimo was able to show off its stability and mobility, hopping around on one foot and going so far as to kick a soccer ball towards the president.
"I can kick a soccer ball," the little robot told the president. Obama responded by saying "Ok, come on."
After kicking the ball squarely towards the president, Obama was impressed by the robot's soccer skills and the president was caught saying "that was pretty impressive."
Asimo is actually an acronym for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility. The small humanoid robot was develop and built by Honda as part of the company's research on advanced humanoid robotics. The aim of the project was to build a mobile assistant that could fulfill a wide variety of functions. Given Japan's rapidly aging population, many of the country's tech giants have poured a considerable amount of resources into researching, developing and manufacturing robots that can help take care of the elderly. Current prototypes range from humanoid androids to powered exoskeletons.
"I keep training every day so that someday in the future I can help people in their homes," Asimo told the president.
Obama isn't the first high ranking official charmed by Asimo. Over the years, Asimo and a number of his predecessors have met various VIPs from all over the world. However, meeting Obama is considered as the first time that the little robot has come face to "face" with an American head of state.
Honda started experimenting with robots back in the 80s. At first, the company's early prototypes looked nothing like humans. When the first Asimo was unveiled back in 2000 however, the world was stunned by the agile robot that looked like a small human or a child in a small space suit. Over the years, Asimo's movement capabilities were drastically improved. The current model can now exhibit very human-like movements. As robots become more and more humanlike however, people of the near future may very well have to deal with the "uncanny valley" on a daily basis. The "uncanny valley" is a hypothesis that proposes that a robot that moves like a human or looks like a human but can still be identified as something that is not entirely human can cause revulsion in humans.
Obama is currently in Japan as part of the president's four nation tour of Asia. While the president seemed impressed by Asimo's capabilities, he also shared later that he found the experience a bit unnerving in what may very well be a slight case of the "uncanny valley."
