this guy rules

This is one of the most advanced robots I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t sing and dance like the Honda, Toyota, and Sony robots, but damn if these videos aren’t impressive as to what Robita can do!

* face recognition
* facial direction recognition
* gesture recognition
* sound direction estimation
* speech regonition
* sound source seperation

It can point, gesture, show facial “emotion”, carry on conversations (even interrupt if it thinks its point is better) with one or more people. Extremely cool.

http://www.pcl.cs.waseda.ac.jp/robita/

64

I have Gastroenteritis.

Twenty-four to 48 hours of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, headache, fever, and muscle aches.

It sucks.

Started Monday night and still going strong.

All I can do is rest and drink a lot of water.

ugh.

62

nathanchase’s LJ stalker is califlorinese!
califlorinese is stalking you because they think you are a rockstar and they want your stick. Drumsticks, in fact. They are also stalking you in real life. Look out!

LiveJournal Username:

LJ Stalker Finder
From Go-Quiz.com
;) June… never would have guessed.

car buying is exhausting

Looking at car buying lately. My Altima is about ready to die. It’s 9 years old and has 150,000+ miles on it. I’m looking at some different models and trying to decide what it is I really want in a car.



2005 Totoya Matrix XR
My first pick as of now. Has a cool look, good colors, lots of space, 130hp isn’t too shabby, pretty good options, overall good value.


2005 Scion tC
Don’t know much about this one yet, has a nice look, price is good, good standard features.


2005 Scion xA
Similar to the Matrix, the cheapest of my picks, plenty of cargo space, not much pickup-and-go.


2005 Mini Cooper
Tons of style, great options, fairly inexpensive, virtually no cargo space, probably not practical.


2005 Nissan Altima
A little more expensive, like my Altima I have now, nice new features, the high-end of my selections.


2004 Toyota Prius
Gas!, hybrid engine is cool, no horsepower can’t drive it fast, sorta space-age looking not sure if I like it yet or not, little more expensive.


  • So I want my car to look pretty sporty, but I’m not obsessed over 0-60 or horespower.
  • It has to have good audio, which if I were to buy I could always put my own custom system in afterwards. But if I were to lease I have to live with whatever comes standard.
  • I like having 4 doors with my Altima that I have now, so I dunno if going to a 2 door would be a problem for me or not.
  • Having room to put my drums in my car is sort of a problem, and obviously the MINI wouldn’t be able to do it, and probably not the Prius or the tC either. It’s not a vital thing but something I think about.
  • Would definitely get automatic transmission, cruise control, anti-lock brakes (need them in this wet road Florida weather).
  • Things I’d like to have as extra goodies would be fog lights, a cool exhaust tip, 17″ alloy wheels. Don’t really like sunroofs/moonroofs, although that’s part of the tC’s design.
  • Gas would be easier on the pocketbook with the Prius, and it has tax writeoff too for it being an enviro-friendly car or something like that. 60MPG is nothing to sneeze at. Although the other cars do pretty well for non-hybrids, especially the Matrix and MINI.
  • All in all the Matrix seems to have the space, the sporty look, and the price. But I haven’t test driven any of these yet so I’m not sure. The 2005 Altima SE-R when it comes out looks like it should be pretty nice.
  • Too many choices. Anyone have any thoughts?