There is nothing quite like upgrades in robots to excite the robophile in you – although I am quite sure that if you were plugged in to the Matrix, you would have hated upgraded agents that Neo faced if you were not the One. I digress – Hitachi’s personal assistant robot known as the EMIEW 2 has just received its fair share of upgrades, where the EMIEW 2 is now capable of recognizing objects with the help of the Internet. This is done should it exhaust its database of existing image references – and once nothing remotely similar is found, the EMIEW 2 will take a photo with its camera, run a quick search online for something similar, and proceed with the next logical action that its robotic mind can think of.
Not only that, the inclusion of a new network of cameras that are carefully positioned throughout the office space, EMIEW 2 is capable of locating specific objects while guiding ordinary folk to them, although I am quite sure that a receptionist would do a far better job in the first place. No idea on when robots like the EMIEW 2 will be come mainstream (and affordable to the average home), but at least it is a start – somewhere.