Refining learning techniques gets bots to think faster on their feet
As an architect of communications, computer and music technologies at Sony Corp., Toshitada (Toshi) Doi co-developed the compact disk and, in the 1980s, developed Sony's proprietary workstation. But he is perhaps most closely associated with a quirky little machine that wags its tail and downloads the newspaper.
Doi is the father of Aibo, Sony's robotic dog. At a time when most people were envisioning robots as servants that would relieve humans of tedious or dangerous tasks, Doi saw the prospects for exploiting the machines' entertainment value. Thus, Sony's four-legged Aibo and biped Qrio robots play, dance and learn but do not do physical work.
The automated dog is just the beginning. Doi believes that robotics will grow into one of the key industries in this century, assuming a role similar to that played by the PC industry in the 20th. Putting that vision into practice, in 2000 he helped launch Robodex, the Comdex of robotics exhibitions.
Just how tightly robots will be woven into the social fabric has long been a question for science fiction writers. Although Doi reminds people that robots are essentially computers, whose behavior is programmed, he believes they can be more. As president of Sony's new Intelligence Dynamics Laboratories, he is pursuing advances in machine learning to create robots that respond more flexibly to the environment.
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