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Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots 1st Edition

by Timothy N. Hornyak (Author)

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Japan stands out for its long love affair with humanoid robots, a phenomenon that is creating what will likely be the world's first mass robot culture. While U.S. companies have produced robot vacuum cleaners and war machines, Japan has created warm and fuzzy life-like robot therapy pets. While the U.S. makes movies like "Robocop" and "The Terminator," Japan is responsible for the friendly Mighty Atom, Aibo and Asimo. While the U.S. sponsors robot-on-robot destruction contests, Japan's feature tasks that mimic nonviolent human activities. The Steven Spielberg film, "AI," was a disaster at the world box office-except in Japan, where it was a huge hit. Why is this? What can account for Japan's unique relationship with robots as potential colleagues in life, rather than as potential adversaries? Loving the Machine attempts to answer this fundamental query by looking at Japan's historical connections with robots, its present fascination and leading technologies, and what the future holds. Through in-depth interviews with scientists, researchers, historians, artists, writers and others involved with or influenced by robots today, author Timothy N. Hornyak looks at robots in Japan from the perspectives of culture, psychology and history, as well as technology; and brings understanding to an endlessly evolving subject. From the Edo-period humanoid automatons, through popular animation icons and into the high tech labs of today's researchers into robotic action and intelligence, the author traces a fascinating trail of passion and development.

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Book Description From the amazing automatons of feudal Japan to giant animated robots and the cutting-edge androids of today, Loving the Machine is a fascinating journey of passion and discovery.

Watch a video clip featuring author Timothy Hornyak--and robots
How Much Do You Really Know About Robots?
(After reading Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots, youll know a lot!)

Q: Where did the term "robot" first appear, and who coined it?
A: Karel Capek, pronounced [KARL CHAP-ek], in his 1921 play R. U. R. (Rossums Universal Robots).

Q: One of Japans first "robots" was a clockwork servant who would bring guests a cup of tea, then return to the server with the empty cup. In what century did these "tea-serving dolls" as they were known, appear?
A: The Eighteenth century, Japans Edo period.

Q: The animated hero Astro Boy may have 100,000 horsepower strength, but does he have a human soul?
A: Yesand more importantly, he can fire bullets out of his backside!

Q: Wakamaru is a robot created by Mitsubishi that can recite news and weather forecasts that it receives from the Internet, look into peoples eyes when being spoken to, and charge itself when its power is running low. For what purpose was Wakamaru built?
A: For domestic help.

Q: The RoboCup, in which robot teams of soccer players from around the world compete, has as its ultimate goal the creation of a team of robots who will be able to take on the reigning World Cup champions. By what year do the RoboCups founders hope to have a team of robot Beckhams ready to face humanitys top players?
A: 2050.

Q: What teams humanoid robots won the RoboCup in the summer of 2006and in several years before that?
A: Team Osaka (which is managed by Systec Akazawa Co. and includes robotics experts from Osaka University).

Q: Which team won in the Small Robot League this past summer?
A: Carnegie-Mellon Universitys CMDragons.

Q: Sonys Aibo robot, first available to consumers in 1999, was not a humanoid robot. What did it resemble?
A: A puppy.

Q: One of the most advanced robots in the world is ASIMO, a humanoid who can recognize faces, serve drinks, and run at 4 miles per hour. ASIMO rang the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange in 2002, and was parodied on a South Park episode in which Eric Cartman tried to pass himself off as a robot called "AWESOM-O." What Japanese corporation created ASIMO? A: Honda.

Q: In 2006, android maker Hiroshi Ishiguro unveiled an android clone of what person?
A: Himselfhe figured it would help cut his workload in half!

Review

Beautiful...enlightening....a must-read for bot-obsessed humanoids. -- Wired Magazine

It s a fascinating history, rendered in words and bright photographs. -- The Associated Press

From the Publisher

A fascination with robots pervades Japanese culture, from cartoon shows to consumer toys to corporate engineering research. While in the West, robots are seen as threateningthink of the "Terminator"-style tales of technology out to destroy its human creatorsin Japan, robots are far more commonly seen as partners, cooperating with the humanity whose image they wear. And several companies, including Honda, Sony, Fujitsu, and JVC, have spent millions in developing robots who return the investment not through money but by serving as technological ambassadors to the public. LOVING THE MACHINE: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots explores the reasons behind Japan's unique affection for robots, and looks at the surprising direction in which robo-mania is taking the country.

Science and technology journalist Timothy N. Hornyak takes readers on a fascinating and beautifully-illustrated tour through the robot kingdom, interacting with the latest technological pets and playmates, interviewing the engineers and designers currently creating the inhabitants of tomorrow, and even visiting the Osaka RoboCup, where every year teams of robots from across the world face off in games of soccer. Along the way, Hornyak reveals several different factors that have played a part in Japan's enthusiasm for robots.

LOVING THE MACHINE opens in the 1600s, when craftsmen formed automated dolls that served tea; Japanese robots took another leap forward in the 1950s when Mighty Atom (known to U.S. audiences as Astro Boy) launched a series of adventures that influenced generations of children and spawned numerous other mechanical heroes, including Mazinger Z, Mobile Suit Gundam, and the battling mega-mechs of contemporary anime and manga. Science fiction isn't the only place that plays home to robots: Hornyak visits industrial trade fairs and assembly lines, where robots have played a major role in transforming Japan into an exporting powerhouse.

LOVING THE MACHINE also looks to the future, when robots will increasingly interact with people on a daily basis, even in their own homes. More charismatic with each generation, robots are not only becoming useful to a greater degree, they are also becoming progressively adept in serving human needs for companionship and productive interaction.

From the Author

"Japanese robots" as a concept links some very diverse elements from both fantasy and reality: giant robots of fantasy like Gundam, industrial robots that work in factories, and even the karakuri ningyo clockwork dolls from centuries ago, which are the true ancestors of today's humanoid machines such as Honda's ASIMO. I guess one aspect of LOVING THE MACHINE is that it follows this "robot thread" from the windup tea-server doll of the Edo period through to the contruction of real robots like Gakutensoku in the 1920s to factory automation and icons of Japanese animation like Astro Boy and Gundam. The "robot journey" in Japan has been the discovery of fantastic entertainers, tools, and, ultimately, friends in robots. Because of this rich tradition, Japanese are especially able to see robots as something more than mere tools, buckets of bolts, or steel and silicon. They can welcome them as partners in everyday life with surprising ease.

About the Author

TIMOTHY N. HORNYAK moved to Japan in 1999 after working as a freelance science and technology journalist in Montreal. He worked at the international desk of Kyodo News in Tokyo, and has written about Japanese culture, technology and history for Scientific American, the Far Eastern Economic Review and other publications.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kodansha International
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 28, 2006
Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 159 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 4770030126
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-4770030122
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.55 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.9 x 0.7 x 7.6 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #4,288,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,159 in Robotics (Books)
- #1,799 in Robotics & Automation (Books)
- #67,040 in Sociology (Books)
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Timothy N. Hornyak

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Tim Hornyak is a Canadian writer based in Tokyo, Japan, who has worked in journalism for more than 20 years. He has written extensively about travel, food, technology, science, culture and business in Japan, as well as Japanese inventors, roboticists and Nobel Prize-winning scientists. Tim’s writing has appeared in media including Nature, Science, Scientific American, CNBC, CNET, The Japan Times and IDG News. He is the author of Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots and has contributed to several Lonely Planet travel guidebooks. His favorite robot is Astro Boy, but he firmly believes that the greatest Japanese invention of all time is the onsen (hot spring). He has lived in Tokyo for more than 15 years.

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Bruce D. Wilner
fascinating, absorbing, informative
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2007
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What else can I say that my title doesn't convey?

My only carp--perhaps--is that the author fails satisfactorily to address the issue of why robots, so very hyped (albeit less so than, say, thirty years ago), have failed to establish significant inroads in domestic settings. Visit a Japanese automobile factory and you'll see robots everywhere--mounting parts, soldering, painting (even painting one another--accidentally, one hopes!). But in the home--as comedically immortalized in Woody Allen's 1974 hootfest, "Sleeper"--you don't see robots other than as curiosities, such as non-pooping "dogs."

Hornyak could have made the book more entertaining by including the anecdote about Herbie--had he known it. Herbie was a non-anthropomorphic robot that delivered inter-office mail in an AT&T facility in Silver Spring, Maryland. His route was not preprogrammed, but was "taught" to him by spray-painting a gradually fading metallic stripe onto the carpet: Herbie would follow the stripe, stopping whenever someone stood in his path. (Herbie was very polite: not only did he move slowly, but he did not step on feet.) One conniver thought it would be funny to spray-paint the stripe right over to the fifth-floor picture window, whereby Herbie committed hara-kiri in a spectacular blaze. (The jokester was less upset at being fired than at the eighty-thousand-dollar legal judgment.)

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BernardZ
Fasinating
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2007
Verified Purchase
I though that some parts overdone with comic characters and Japanese attitudes but overall fascinating. I loved examining the photos of some of the earlier robots over 200 years old. Some look incredibly intricate as well as beautiful.

I also felt inspired to get one of these modern robots too.

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Ray. Bod
Robots friendly, robots nice
Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2006
Do you want to know what's going on in the world of human-like robots? This book will bring you up to the present and it's happening in Japan. It's good light reading with the right balance of photos of robots. Not any kind of depth - just a light entertaining read. Kid's will like it as well as any adult who's interested in cartoon robots and real cutting edge human-like robots.

The book really shows how easily human-like robots are slipping in the psychie of Japan (and eventually the rest of us). Are we really ready for the coming robot world? Doesn't matter. We're all being softened up by these friendly and so nice robots. Nice, nice robots. Step by step with the help of their human inventors and advertisers, they've started their march into human society. I'd suggest watching the movie "I Robot" after you've read the book, or give both as a gift.

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Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2016
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Tim Hornyak is knowledgeable and he writes exceedingly well.

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KNDY
A magnificent book on the history, art and science of robots in Japan. Well-researched and well-written!
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2009
I was reading a Japanese newspaper and the headline read "Android teaching lessons at Tokyo Elementary School".

As a big sci-fi and mecha (robot genre) fan, I often wondered about the progress of robotic technology in America but also how America and Japan perceive the future of utilizing this technology. And what grabbed my attention of "LOVING THE MACHINE: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots" were a few sentences that instantly grabbed my attention.

Here, in America, when robot technology is featured, they are viewed as robots or computers who attain intelligence and want to rule over or destroy the world or humanity. With films such as "Terminator", "Eagle Eye", to even many science fiction novels, robots with intelligence are typically featured as technology that can go awry and humanity will be responsible for creating something that can kill us off.

Meanwhile, in Japan, robotics are seen differently. Integrated into society and it has been that way for a long time with the animation and manga series "Tetsuwan Atom" (Atom Boy) to humans piloting large mecha suits such as Gundam and moreso now as there have been a robot created after a newscaster, a robot serving drinks or food at a restaurant. There are two different perspectives of robotic technology.

"LOVING THE MACINE: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots" is a magnificent book on the Japanese perspective, creation and the utilization of robot technology written by Timothy N. Hornyak, who works at the International desk of Kyodo News.

I was immediately surprised to read that robot technology or the planning of clock-work automations were done back in the 1600's. There are prints that date back during the Edo Period of automations that were utilized in stage performances to tea-serving. Even blue prints from 1796 which Shoji Tatsukawa, a former Waseda University professor, used the prints to create a tea-serving doll.

Hornyak is very thorough when it came to his research in writing this book. Covering Japan hundreds of years ago and then featuring photography and interviews with modern technology representatives. One who said these early automations were what shaped the way the Japanese view robots.

Learning that Europe actually had more technically sophisticated creations which they attempted to reproduce human activities in machine form, Japanese looked at trying to create charm.

That was until the 1920's when there was a robot boom in Japan where people were creating many robots that were mainly non functional but nevertheless, looked futuristic and showed the forward thinking of these inventors.

By the 1930's, robots became a staple in Japanese pop culture. From magazines, comics, songs, radio episodes and more. But the person who brought the concept of robot to mainstream was manga artist Tezuka Osamu, the creator of Tetsuwan Atom (Atom Boy). A machine who was intelligent but emotional. A robot created not to be hurt mankind but a scientist who wanted to recreate a robot after the death of his son.

And of course, from then on, Japanese started utilizing robots in animation such as "Mazinger Z", "Mobile Suit Gundam", "Giant Robo", "Evangelion" and many more. It's a common thing to see in Japan as its so ingrained into Japan's pop culture. Go to a toy store and these popular robots or mecha can be seen in all sorts of merchandise.

But Japan's entry into making robots more humanlike began in the 1960's courtesy of Ichiro Kato, one of Japan's well-known roboticists. Robots walking, playing music on a keyboard. Unfortunately, Kato died in 1984 and his dream of creating a robot that would be humanlike was never achieved but Waseda University known for its Humanoid Robotics Institute would further their research into robot technology.

Mainstream robotics came to play around the 1990's. The most popular were Sony's Aibo which sold out within minutes when it was released back in 1999. The Aibo was not cheap but people who have purchased an Aibo would chronicle their lives on the Internet and showed how the regular Japanese cared for their robots.

But when it came to showcasing human-like movement of robots, automobile maker Honda became a company in the forefront. In fact, on Feb. 14, 2002, Honda's listing on the New York Stock Exchange featured their robot Asimo ringing the opening bell. And eventually, other companies such a Fujitsu, JVC and Toyota would have their own versions of robots.

As robots become more technologically advanced, as mentioned, I am a big sci-fi fan and often wondered when androids like Data of the popular "Star Trek: The Next Generation" would come to play, even though in its beginning stages, in our modern time.

Sure enough, by 2005, at the Aichi Expo was the introduction of Repliee Q1expo cloned after NHK news announcer Ayako Fujii. The creator of Repliee was Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's Intelligent Robotics Laboratory and sure enough, he was an avid fan of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" android, Data. How an android can elicit natural responses in people and can be integrated into human society.

The potential of robot technology and the concept of androids is starting to become realized in Japanese culture and it's just amazing to read the news on how they are utilized at shows and schools.

Overall, Timothy N. Hornyak was successful in creating a book that features Japanese passion for robots but going as far as the 1600's to modern day with color photographs and interviews with key people involved with the creation of these robots. In fact, there are many forms of early to modern day robots presented in this book (with photos). It's absolutely a great resource for Japanese robotics and its history.

The book is well-written, well-researched and quite enjoyable. If you are a fan of robot or android technology, especially its perception and how they are utilized in Japanese society, I highly recommend checking this book out!

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5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating, absorbing, informative

5.0 out of 5 stars Fasinating

4.0 out of 5 stars Robots friendly, robots nice

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

5.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent book on the history, art and science of robots in Japan. Well-researched and well-written!

Top reviews from other countries

1.0 out of 5 stars One Star

fascinating, absorbing, informative

Fasinating

Robots friendly, robots nice

Five Stars

A magnificent book on the history, art and science of robots in Japan. Well-researched and well-written!

One Star