The Japan Times Online Kansai robots on march amid Astro Boy hoopla

By ASAKO MURAKAMI
Staff writer

OSAKA -- The Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, is witnessing a surge in visitors ahead of the April 7 "birthday" of Astro Boy, the humanoid robot for which the late cartoonist is probably best known.

Norihiro Hagita, director of the Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories at Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, pats the Robovie-IIS, an autonomous communication robot that can respond to various types of touch. ASAKO MURAKAMI PHOTO
The real world has not yet been able to create a robot akin to the futuristic Astro Boy (known as Atom in Japan), incorporating a highly advanced artificial brain, eyes that can see through objects and hearing that is 10,000 times more acute than that of an average human.
But the dream is still alive, not just with children but also among businesses and municipalities in the Kansai region that hope the promotion of robot technologies will help revitalize the local economy.
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