The Anime Reality

Do you dream of robots one day walking among us? One Canadian immigrant sure does!

This is Aiko:

From Aiko’s website:

The original goal of Aiko was to help our aging population to do simple tasks like make tea and coffee, tell them the weather, read a magazine or remind them to take their medication at the correct time. There are many applications for Aiko in the home, office or public places.

Well that sounds pretty noble.  So how was it built?

Aiko was built in my basement using credit card loans and my entire savings account as funding. One of my dreams is to make Aiko walk and do other house chores. I cannot do this without your donations and support. The donations will go towards new motors, sensors and mainboards to design Aiko’s new arm and leg systems.

Wait a minute…

Aiko is the first android to react to physical stimuli and mimic pain. This technology could be applied to people born with or who have undergone amputations. Aiko is the first step towards a life-like mechanical limb that has the ability to feel physical sensations.

Why would we need a robot to feel pain when we have plenty of amputees who have felt it already? Obviously there’s more to this than altruism for the elderly. So what’s the REAL reason this thing was created?

I have been repeatedly asked why I wanted to build Aiko. It actually starts back in the 70s during my childhood where I spent a lot of time watching Japanese anime which often featured robot themes. I remember saying to myself as a child, “I will build one of those when I grow up.” Throughout my life, I have built many prototypes and smaller robots. However, the greatest motivation came after watching “Chobits.” That was when I decided I had to build a life size gynoid (robot designed to look like a human female). It was August 15, 2007. And I knew that all I needed to build it was a little inspiration and passion.

For some context Chobits is, according to wikipedia:

the story of Hideki Motosuwa, who finds an abandoned persocom, or personal computer with human form, that he names Chi after the only word she initially can speak. As the series progresses, together they explore the mysteries of Chi’s origin and questions about the relationships between humans and persocoms.

Aiko was more likely created to be the personal anime robot girl that could love this guy than any sort of altruism. To be fair Aiko has an incredibly adavanced AI but this is the only thing “she” is ever going to be used for (aside from being an obsessive fixation for one crazed shut-in):

Want to creep yourself out? Have fun yourself digging through Aiko’s site and the Chobits wiki article. See how many parallels you can draw between the two.