China now only a year behind Japan in robotics?

China has now also created a robot, "Mis Rong Cheng", with voice-recognition and human-interaction capabilities, only a year or so after Japan did so (see my articles and Blog entries on the subject of robotics.

The Chinese robot too looks like a woman, is 168-cm tall, weighs 60-kg, and is programmed to speak and respond to between 500 to 1,000 commands in Mandarin, as well as in Sichuanese because the intention is to send her to the Sichuan Science Museum in Chengdu to act as a receptionist and tour guide.

I must say that the Chinese robot (which I have seen only in photos and video sequences) does not look quite as human, let alone as attractive, as the Japanese - which, by the way, remains the most advanced robot in the world. That's Honda's "Asimo", who can walk at a speed of one mile per hour and climb up and down stairs as well.

However, "Asimo" does cost roughly one million U.S. dollars, whereas Chinese "Miss Rong Cheng" cost only 37,500 U.S. dollars.

Japan, watch out!

The score in robotics seems to me, at present, to be:

India: 0
USA: 1
Europe: 2
China: 3
Korea: 3
Japan: 5.

The story on the Chinese robot is at: http://today.reuters.com/tv/videoChannel.aspx?storyId=ae0675d066e796842059950247ac1c9bc0fdf0de Sphere: Related Content