QRIO

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Qrio presentation at the RoboCup 2004

QRIO ("Quest for cuRIOsity", originally named Sony Dream Robot or SDR) was to be a bipedal humanoid entertainment robot marketed and sold by Sony to follow up on the success of its AIBO toy. QRIO stood approximately 0.6 m (2 feet) tall and weighed 7.3 kg (16 pounds). QRIO's slogan was "Makes life fun, makes you happy!"

On January 26, 2006, on the same day as it announced its discontinuation of AIBO and other products, Sony announced that it would stop development of QRIO.^[1] Before it was cancelled, QRIO was reported to be going through numerous development, testing and scalability phases, with the intent of becoming commercially available within three or four years.^{[citation needed]}

QRIO is capable of voice and face recognition, making it able to remember people as well as their likes and dislikes. A video on QRIO's website shows it speaking with several children. QRIO can run at 23 cm/s, and is credited in Guinness World Records (2005 edition) as being the first (and fastest) bipedal robot capable of running (which it defines as moving while both legs are off the ground at the same time). The 4th generation QRIO's internal battery lasts about 1 hour.

The QRIO prototypes were developed and manufactured by Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratory, Inc.^[2] The number of these prototypes in existence is unknown. Up to ten QRIO have been seen performing a dance routine together; this was confirmed by a Sony representative at the Museum of Science in Boston, MA on January 22, 2006. Many videos of this can be found on the web.

Four fourth-generation Qrio prototype robots were featured dancing in the Hell Yes music video by recording artist Beck. These prototypes lacked a third camera in the center of the forehead and the improved hands and wrists which were added to later prototypes. It took programmers three weeks to program their choreography.^[3]