Japan develops robot CHEERLEADERS which RIDE on BALLS

A major electronics company in Japan has developed a team of robot cheerleaders which are designed to seat themselves atop balls and carry out vigorous coordinated manoeuvres, thus: “We developed the Murata Cheerleaders to demonstrate our electronics technologies,” enthuses Koichi Yoshikawa, Senior Manager of Corporate …

[Thorne]

Defeats the whole purpose....

The whole point of cheerleaders is to stare to the hot chicks. Might as well watch the toaster.......

[Mark 85]

Re: Defeats the whole purpose....

But with a toaster you get toast.... yummy with peanut butter and jam. With Ball Riding Cheerleaders you get what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Defeats the whole purpose....

I can see it going down pretty damn well at lots of things. Idols accompanied by them, Vocaloids accompanied by them, have them sat on the counter at a restaurant, etc etc etc.

[wayward4now]

Re: Defeats the whole purpose....

Wait until they put little Santa Claus figurines on those balls. They'll sell like hotcakes to every Grandma as presents for her grand-kids in no time. If they could be directed by WiFi, then include some software for them to do that and edit little dance schemes on your PC. The crowd goes wild flinging cash to have one. I can see it now! Then little Barbee's, or soldier of war/ G.I. Joe, with little light-up AK-47's, figurines. You all laugh now, monkey boys, someone will get stinking rich with this one.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Defeats the whole purpose....

With Ball Riding Cheerleaders you get what?

Nope, sorry, can't do it. It's just too easy.

[Thorne]

Re: Defeats the whole purpose....

"Nope, sorry, can't do it. It's just too easy."

Sticking one of them down your trousers, you deserve everything you get.....

[Fibbles]

Re: Defeats the whole purpose....

Did somebody say toast?

[enerider]

Re: Defeats the whole purpose....

Yeah Toast!

[Chika]

Re: Defeats the whole purpose....

I would have thought the answer was obvious. You get balls.

[Fungus Bob]

Re: Defeats the whole purpose....

"The whole point of cheerleaders is to stare to the hot chicks"

Exactly...

Skip to the 7:50 point in the video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GjTOrUIkAs

[LaeMing]

Cute!

It put a smile on my (flu-ravaged, today) face.

[Evil Auditor]

Re: Cute!

Good that internet isn't that far developed, otherwise I'd have accused you of infecting me.

[king of foo]

E X T R E M E skittles/ten pin bowling

These should be redesigned so that they dodge the ball when you're bowling, and mock you.

[cortland]

Reminds me of

Somewhere in "The Blues Brothers", on seeing Sister Mary Stigmata -- "the penguin", when they think she can't hear them-- glide mysteriously across the floor, Jake asks Elwood, "How does she DO that?"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Reminds me of

Kept hearing the music of Nutcracker Suite in my head - with memories of the Disney "Fantasia" cartoon.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Reminds me of

I saw the glowing eyes and thought Village of the Damned

"Beware....the stare!!"

[Mondo the Magnificent]

Did you see the rivets on her?

Well done to the Japanese, they're miles ahead of everyone

They will be the first nation to entice robots, droids and other electromechanical mayhem into the grandstands! This is so Futurama!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Did you see the rivets on her?

Futurama indeed- But who will invent the first robot able to qualify for a boat loan?

[Mr C]

while it may look cheesy

this is actually no small feat to pull off.

It took some good brainpower to make these moves happen (yes, arguably better spend elsewhere)

They don't say much about the tech beneath it, but it would be even more impressive if these bots could sense, communicate, coordinate and execute autonomously (as oppose to simply doing pre-programmed paths and rotations) - because what you then get is something thats actually useful in daily life.

still creepy to see

[Dave 126]

Re: while it may look cheesy

>it would be even more impressive if these bots could sense, communicate, coordinate and execute autonomously

That has been looked into already - see the TED Talk 'Vijay Kumar: Robots that fly ... and cooperate' below. It shouldn't be too difficult to incorporate Prof. Kumar's techniques into these ball robots. The sensing hardware is almost at the 'off the shelf' level - (i.e MS Kinect et al), plus mesh networking...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ErEBkj_3PY

[ian 22]

Re: while it may look cheesy

To paraphrase the "any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable to magic" quote, any technology sufficiently weird is indistinguishable to crazy. The Japanese do the best weird

[Fibbles]

Re: while it may look cheesy

I'd be surprised if steering behaviours / flocking wasn't involved somehow. It's just simple vector maths.

[ndjalva]

Re: while it may look cheesy

What no flips or handsprings!

As exciting as watching paint dry.

ugh well japan is off my bucket list, I can see enough Japan here every summer. They come in cans, big ones with wheels, oops not PC this morning

[Harry the Bastard]

let me be the first to say that

i, for one, welcome our new ball riding overlords

[Dave 126]

Re: let me be the first to say that

Those who don't had better invest in a box of drawing pins.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: let me be the first to say that

They can't climb stairs - unless they learn to bounce. Exterminaaaate!

[Manolo]

Must resist...

... urge to quip about Japanese cheerleaders riding my balls...

I'll go get me coat.

[Isendel Steel]

Bigger

Will they be making them in a size appropriate for large venues ?

Impressive none the less.

[Captain DaFt]

Re: Bigger

Trust me, you don't want that:

http://www.historyvortex.org/DalekAnatomy.html

Be afraid, be very, very afraid!

[Lionel Baden]

impressive

It takes alot of balls to pull that off :)

[Pirate Dave]

I thought..

a key requirement to becoming a cheerleader was being able to ride a pair of balls... so what's so new about this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry...

But this does not beat The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders at all.

[Chris G]

Golf

They reminded me of golf tees on top of the balls. If I saw a creepy posse of these coming towards I think a 5 iron would give them some useful loft.

But impressive smooth programming.

[Bucky 2]

It won't be long now

Once these things go wrong, I expect The Doctor will have to save us from them.

[Kaltern]

Daleks have nothing on these, make them big enough with some meaty motors and they could traverse stairs just by rolling up them...

[ndjalva]

WOW a completely non-pep club type. I would get sick watching that crap. BUT it is Japan

[wayward4now]

It's great! Very Japanese

I LOVE it! It's great out-of-the-box thinking. I think that these little robots are a proof-of-concept for bigger and better to come. Too bad we don't have those balls here in the US. :) Ric