Sony Shows Off Humanoid Robot

Aibo may soon have a master it can relate to. Sony has taken the wraps off its latest prototype humanoid robot, the SDR-4X, and says that it could be on the market by the end of this year.

The SDR-4X is a successor to the SDR-3X prototype that was unveiled in late 2000 at Robodex, the world's first exhibition of entertainment robots. Now with Robodex 2002 a week away, engineers from Sony's Digital Creators Laboratory in Tokyo are showing off their latest prototype and the advances they have made in robotic technology in the last 16 months.

The researchers face the problem of making the technology small enough to fit inside the SDR-4X, which is just under 23 inches tall--around a third of the size of Honda Motor's well-known Asimo humanoid robot--and weighs 14 pounds. Powered by a pair of RISC processors, the SDR-4X is capable of 38 separate degrees of movement, a significant jump from the 24 of the previous version.

Among the many improvements in the new version, two areas are worthy of note: a real-time adaptive motion control system and richer communication technology including facial recognition and complex speech recognition.

Motion Control
The motion control system enables SDR-4X to go places and do things its predecessor couldn't, such as balance on a moving platform and walk on carpet or Japanese tatami mat floors. While they may not seem difficult, for a robot they are major tasks, says Yoshihiro Kuroki, a senior manager at the Digital Creators Laboratory and the original brains behind the SDR project.

"Most small humanoids have a problem to adapt to such a floor," he says. "A big humanoid has weight so it is easy to walk on this kind of floor but a small humanoid does not have that advantage." Considering the SDR-4X's height and weight, he says it is equivalent to a robot the same size as an adult trying to walk on a carpet around half an inch deep and keep its balance.

The development of a real-time motion-control system makes all of this possible. The system dynamically adapts to changing terrain and helps SDR-4X keep its balance. "We developed four small sensors on each foot and a gyroscope in the body," he says. "That is a very new thing so now the SDR has the ability to adapt to irregular terrain."

A pair of digital cameras has also given SDR-4X stereoscopic vision, allowing it to negotiate around objects that are in its way. The previous model had a single camera and so was unable to perceive depth.

Human Interaction
The cameras also helped engineers in tackling the second major challenge: improving the interaction between the robot and humans. SDR-4X has the ability to remember the faces of 10 people and can even recognize emotions from facial features. Improved voice and speech recognition technology has provided it the ability to recognize people and also understand continuous speech, rather than the single words that the SDR-3X or Aibo robots can manage.

"For the intelligence part, the SDR-3X used Aibo technology, which is discrete word recognition and color recognition technology," explains Masahiro Fujita, a senior manager in charge of interaction technologies used in the SDR-4X. "Today, we have developed three new recognition technologies--face recognition, continuous speech recognition, and short and long term memory."

The speech recognition system, while vastly improved upon from the previous model, is still a work in progress, says Fujita, something underlined by the difficulty the SDR-4X had in recognizing some continuous speech during Tuesday's demonstration. Background noise, says Fujita, was proving particularly difficult for the engineers to tackle.

Making Noise
"For speech recognition, there are several kinds of noise," he says. "There is white noise, for robots there is motor noise, and also background noise. For the first two, we can reduce the noise level using multiple microphones." The SDR-4X has a total of seven microphones to enable it to work out the direction from which sound came and better hear it.

"But if two people speak to the robot simultaneously, we have the so-called cocktail party effect. We have to focus on the particular person and this is a problem. Using the seven or six microphones we will make an effort to improve the recognition rate but, basically, this is still a problem."

It is one of several issues that engineers will have to tackle before Sony can begin selling the product, says Kuroki. The company needs to work on increasing reliability of the hardware and software but, should all go according to plan, the first commercial version of the SDR could be on the market before the end of the year. Sony wouldn't comment on the price, but it is expected initially to be considerably more than the company's Aibo robots.

More immediately, the SDR-4X will be unveiled to the public at the Robodex 2002 exhibition next week in Yokohama, Japan. With the theme of "robots as partners," the exhibition will highlight the latest in robot technology from leading robot researchers. More information on the event can be found online at Robodex.org.

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Interplay Maintains D&D Licenses

Interplay Entertainment will maintain the license to develop and publish role-playing games using the Dungeons & Dragons franchises of Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, licensed from Infogrames Interactive, which retains the rights to Neverwinter Nights. Dungeons & Dragons is owned by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro and licensed to Infogrames Interactive. The multi-year, multi-product license allows Black Isle Studios, the role-playing division of Interplay, to deliver PC and console games worldwide. Dungeons & Dragons games currently in development include Icewind Dale II for the PC, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for Xbox and sequels to the multi-million unit selling Baldur's Gate franchise.

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Army Men: RTS goes gold

3DO's latest real-time strategy game, Army Men: RTS, has gone gold and will soon ship to stores, according to a company representative. The game lets players control a group of little plastic soldiers and other units on a mission to stop a colonel who has defected to the enemy side. The game's 15 levels are set in and around a house, and they include areas such as the front yard, a living-room floor, and a dusty attic. Like the previous games in the Army Men series, Army Men: RTS is designed to be accessible to a wide audience, and it has a lighthearted feel to match its humorous theme.

Army Men: RTS was developed by Pandemic Studios, and it uses the studio's Dark Reign 2 3D engine.

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Hero X announced

Infogrames has announced Hero X, its upcoming superhero action game in development at Houston-based game studio Amazing Games. The game will let players assume the role of a first-time superhero with access to more than 50 superpowers, such as X-ray vision, super speed, and invisibility. Players will use their powers in a series of chapters to defeat a variety of villains in real-time tactical combat.
"Over 60 million comic books are sold annually and the interest in comic-book-style action adventures is quite compelling," said Peter Armstrong, director of product development of Infogrames' Minneapolis label. "With Hero X, we are introducing a unique game that appeals to a wide crossover audience."

The game is set in Smalltown, USA, a city under siege by a group of evildoers. The American Super Heroes Association has assigned the player the task of cleaning up the town. The game will have comic-book-style cutscenes between each mission to convey more of the storyline.

Hero X is scheduled for release this summer.

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Camelot to get new 3D engine

Mythic Entertainment has announced that it will use version 4.2 of Numerical Design Limited's NetImmerse 3D engine in Dark Age of Camelot, its popular online role-playing game. The game currently uses version 3.0 of the NetImmerse engine, and the new version of the engine includes new rendering features and other improvements. In particular, the new 3D engine will support more game characters on the screen at one time, which is a critical element in online role-playing games.
"We are delighted to announce our plans to utilize the advanced graphic features of the latest NDL engine as part of our continued commitment to the player experience we've created in Dark Age of Camelot," said Rob Denton, chief technical officer at Mythic Entertainment. "Our intention has always been to make Dark Age of Camelot the leading massively multiplayer online role-playing game on the market. These graphic enhancements will ensure that our players have the very best visual experience while enjoying unparalleled online gameplay."

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Lineage II unveiled

NCsoft has unveiled Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle, its upcoming sequel to its popular online role-playing game Lineage: The Blood Pledge, which currently has more than 4 million active accounts worldwide. Unlike its isometric predecessor, the new game will be powered by Epic's Unreal 3D engine, and it will be set in a 3D medieval fantasy world full of castles, dragons, magic, and large-scale sieges.
Players will assume the role of one of several character races--including human, elf, orc, dark elf, and dwarf--each of which has a different path of advancement. In addition to playing their initial character, players will be able to raise nonplayer characters as apprentices and later use them as their own characters.

Lineage II will also include a number of skills based on races and classes. For instance, fighters will have the option to use a special manual combat mode similar to the system used in fighting games, in which the timing of attacks is taken into account. Magicians will have access to different spheres of magic, such as white magic, black magic, and summoning.

As in the previous game, Lineage II will be based in part on large-scale battles between groups of player characters. The game's new party system and alliance system add new features to help players work together, and the game's new 3D engine will make siege warfare more realistic, and will include large siege weapons and strategic positions for characters.

Lineage II is being designed to be easily accessible at the lower levels, and players will gain access to more complexity as their characters progress in the game. At the higher levels, players will deal with large-scale war, in-game politics, and a detailed economic system.

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Heroes IV, Might and Magic IX gold

Heroes of Might and Magic IV, 3DO's next turn-based strategy game, and Might and Magic IX, the latest installment in its long-running role-playing series, are both complete and on track to ship by the end of March, according to sources close to the company.
Heroes IV improves on the previous games in the Heroes series with better graphics, a new combat system, changes to the technology tree, and other new features. Like the previous games in the series, players can assume control of one of several different factions vying for control of a land set in the medieval fantasy universe featured in the previous Might and Magic games.

Might and Magic IX also includes a number of improvements on its predecessors. The most notable addition is the use of the LithTech 3D engine, but the game also has an all-new spell combat system, a new conversation system, 10 distinct regions, and more than 40 huge levels. Players will assume control of a party of characters, each with different strengths and weaknesses, and they will undertake more than 60 different quests.

Heroes IV and Might and Magic IX were developed by New World Computing, and they will be available in stores around the end of the month for approximately $44.99 and $39.99

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Silent Storm is brewing

Nival Interactive is working on Silent Storm, a turn-based tactics and role-playing game set in WWII. To be published by Fishtank Interactive in the spring of 2003, the game is supposed to offer full 3D, non-linear campaigns and a host of real-world weapons and locations.

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