Baseball playing robots created by Japanese professor

Look out Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka. A pair of baseball-playing robots that can pitch and hit with incredible results have been developed in Japan.The pitching robot, with its three-fingered hand, can throw 90 percent of its pitches in the strike zone, won't need any relief from the bullpen and never asks for a pay raise.
The batting robot, which has a sensor to determine if pitches are strikes or balls, hits balls in the strike zone almost 100 percent of the time, doesn't swing at pitches outside the strike zone, and is guaranteed to pass all drug tests.
The two robots were created by University of Tokyo professor Masatoshi Ishikawa.
"The demand level of the robotics technology of each robot is very high," Ishikawa said. "What was difficult was to create a mechanism to satisfy such a high level of demand."
The pitching robot throws a plastic foam ball at 25 miles per hour, but Ishikawa is hoping to increase the speed to 93 mph and make it able to throw off-speed pitches like curves and sliders.
Ishikawa is also working on getting the batting robot to be able to hit to all parts of the field.
The robots don't resemble humans but instead the type of robots on a car assembly line.
Japan boasts one of the leading robotics industries in the world, and the government is pushing to develop the industry as a road to growth. Automaker Honda has developed the child-sized Asimo, which can walk and talk.

sourse:www.cbsnews.com

video:A fashion modelrobot created by The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology created
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fashion model robot HRP-4C,Launched Tokyo Fashion Week 2009

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology created a walking, talking, posing, expressing, fashion model robot. The model robot has already her moves down, along with 2 super-poses, and rumor has it that she's already dating Robocop and the Terminator.The modelrobot has already her moves down, along with 2 super-poses, and rumor has it that she's already dating Robocop and the Terminator.The modelbot HRP-4C, weighing 43 kilograms , is 158cm tall with black hair, and is scheduled to make a debut at a top Tokyo fashion show-without any clothes.She's got 30 motors in her whole body, with 8 in her face which would allow her to greet Asimo with a smile-not that he could smile back being such a mysterious space helmet head..HRP-4C has the possibility to grow in future versions of the NIAIST just as soon as they figure out how to make her stand up on even thinner, longer legs.