The NAO Next Gen is a humanoid robot from Aldebaran Robotics that can recognize your face!
That’s right, the NAO Next Gen bot will scan faces using two brains in order to correctly greet and interact with specific people that the NAO knows.
The future that Asimov foresaw (in the book iRobot) is starting here with a wave of revolutionary robotics. The Paris based Aldeberan engineers already boast that their NAO robots are the most widely used humanoid robot for academic purposes worldwide.
These robots learn as you teach them things, such as catching a ball or following someone (which is a little creepy, I know).
The NAO bots are made to physically feel their environment with adept prehensile hands (which means they can grip and feel with their palms and fingers like we do), arms, legs and body.
The NAO bots already appear in many classrooms and have specifically helped autistic students with interaction due to the short, 57 cm tall, and friendly demeanor accompanying a people-friendly thirst for learning.
These bad boys/girl bots can hear with extreme accuracy due to four microphones, and they can see and discern how to use their body using a spot on sensor network, including 2 cameras, 4 microphones, sonar rangefinder, 2 IR emitters and receivers, 1 inertial board, 9 tactile sensors, and 8 pressure sensors.
The NAO robots walk and talk and can even assist in the office by picking up dropped pens or encouraging disparaged writers to continue their endless work.
Does the NAO Next Gen robot have a brain? Well, it has two actually: the first is an Intel ATOM 1.6ghz CPU (located in the head) that runs a Linux kernel and supports Aldebaran’s proprietary middleware (NAOqi) and the second CPU is in the body.
And in case you were worried about power, you can teach the NAO robot to plug itself in when the battery is running low!
