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What can you do with a small yet really powerful engine, a new riding lawnmower, a healthy marketing budget, and a professional race driver with some free time? You can cut the grass really, really quickly. Oh, and severely injure or kill yourself if you’re not careful.
• • •
For much of the world, it’s probably fair to assume this type of machine and it’s originally intended utility are something quite foreign. The majority of planet earth’s residents don’t have golf courses or sprawling, heavily grassed estates, so one could be forgiven the assumption that this thing is something like a 4-wheeled ATV for senior citizens (realistically, in a way, riding lawnmowers are kinda that).
If such machines are new for you, that up there is a riding lawnmower – it cuts grass – lots and lots of grass, usually very slowly. Most riding lawnmowers do not hit 130mph/209kph, nor do they crank out 108HP and scream from 0-60mph/96kph in just four seconds. So yeah, again: fabulous engine, new mower, marketing cash, racecar driver. Vrooom!
Along with this mower’s, uhhhh, enhancements, Honda UK also made sure it can still do its job. Blade & grass bag included.
Have a watch – and if time’s short, and you must choose – go with the second one:
Honda’s Mean Mower
Racing Lawnmower from TopGear
• • •
Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.
Researchers from Asia and Europe have developed the world’s lightest and thinnest organic circuits, which in the future could be used in a range of healthcare applications.
Lighter than a feather, these ultrathin film-like organic transistor integrated circuits are being developed by a research group led by Professor Takao Someya and Associate Professor Tsuyoshi Sekitani of the University of Tokyo, who run an Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) program sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), in collaboration with Siegfried Bauer’s group at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz, Austria.
The circuits are extremely lightweight, flexible, durable and thin, and conform to any surface. They are just 2 microns thick, just 1/5 that of kitchen wrap, and weighing only 3g/m^2, are 30 times lighter than office paper. They also feature a bend radius of 5 microns, meaning they can be scrunched up into a ball, without breaking. Due to these properties the researchers have dubbed them “imperceptible electronics”, which can be placed on any surface and even worn without restricting the users movement.
The integrated circuits are manufactured on rolls of one micron thick plastic film, making them easily scalable and cheap to produce. And if the circuit is placed on a rubber surface it becomes stretchable, able to withstand up to 233% tensile strain, while retaining full functionality.
“This is a very convenient way of making electronics stretchable because you can fabricate high performance devices in a flat state and then just transfer them over to a stretchable substrate and create something that is very compliant and stretchable just by a simple pick and place process.”
This prototype device is a touch sensor featuring a 12×12 array of sensors on a 4.8 cm x 4.8 cm circuit. It is made up of two layers, an integrated circuit layer and a tactile sensor layer.
With the development of these plastic electronics, the possibility for flexible, thin, large area electronics has been realized. In the future, the group would like to expand the capabilities of these circuits.
“The new flexible touch sensor is the world’s thinnest, lightest and people cannot feel the existence of this device. I believe this development will open up a wide range of new applications, from health monitoring systems, wearable medical instruments, and even robotic skins in the future.”
The results of this research were published in the July 25, 2013 issue of the journal Nature.
This content is provided by DigInfo.tv, AkihabaraNews Official Partner.
Via: University of Tokyo
Cleaning robots don’t grab headlines – what with the DARPA Robotics Challenge, NASA’s nuclear powered dunebuggy on Mars, exoskeleton intrigue, ASIMO’s new training, etc. What those fancy robots don’t have, however, is a current and growing presence in our homes. A recent Japanese survey breaks down some interesting data:
• • •
Japan: Not Always as Tech as it Seems
Often discussed, but difficult to appreciate if one’s never been here, is the notion of Japanese technological duality, or contradictionism, if you will. Among the favorite targets are the fax machine and its death grip on relevance, banking stuck in 1997, and very late-to-the-game smartphone adoption. These exist side-by-side with some of the world’s most advanced robotics research, a plurality of global industrial automation, the world-standard high-speed shinkansen trains, nationwide 4G wireless coverage, etc.
A lot of Japan has remained unchanged for, ohhhhh… a few thousand years, and one of the technological hangers-on is the humble broom. While one can find a standard plastic broom with plastic bristles anywhere, there are just as many, if not more, shiny new cleaning tools with bamboo handles and some kind of dried grass or an entire plant just stuck on the end.
One might argue that if it’s not broke, blah blah blah, but try effectively sweeping anything other than a lawn with a tumbleweed wired onto the end of a stick. Granted, they’re used primarily for outdoor cleaning – but still, that they exist alone is a curiosity.
(Editor’s Note: Though we’re making light of the issue here, it’s also quite nice to be spared the noise and air pollution of leaf blowers and lawn mowers here in Japan. Mid-sized weed eaters, small engine rotary grass cutters, are pretty much the only motorized outdoor landscaping tools in use.)
So, arguably, in a country where all public school students spend at least 10-15 minutes a day cleaning their own classrooms and buildings by hand, where the verb「掃除」(“sō-ji;” cleaning) is often pronounced with an honorific prefix, and a generalized reverence for things being clean & tidy pervades much of everyday life, the leap to robot cleaners is an interesting one, but one that’s gradually being taken. Japanese buyers’ most common leap is this:
Yep, according to a new survey report from Tokyo-based Seed Planning Market Research and Consulting (市場調査とコンサルティングのシード・プランニング), Boston, Massachusetts-based iRobot’s Roomba, available here since 2004 (and first to market), holds a 75%+ share of Japan’s robo-cleaning market.
Seemingly unrelated, the luxury of home cleaning robots and the practical utility of disaster response robots have one thing in common here in Japan: iRobot. The American company makes both Japan’s #1 selling cleaning robot and the first robots able to enter and inspect the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster zone. This again, is a matter of timing; iRobot’s PackBot and Warrior models have been tested and deployed in active war zones for more than a decade, and Roomba’s 2004 introduction in Japan was far ahead of any viable domestic models.
In second and third place, respectively, are domestic models from Tsukamoto Aim (below left) and Sharp’s Kokorobo series (below right):
(Another Editor’s Note: It’s not being, and would be unfair to imply here that all models sold by Tsukamoto Aim license and take design cues from Hello Kitty, but the existence of this product is, well, it’s just… Japan!)
To Buy or Not to Buy and Why: Reasons & Numbers
As elsewhere, cleaning robots got a slow start here in Japan. Shiny new gee-whiz product purchasing patterns from early adopters gave the market an initial bump, but average consumers were hesitant – rightfully so – early Roomba and domestic models just didn’t, you know, work very well, and reviews and word of mouth weren’t kind to the inspired, yet uninspiring machines.
The tech has caught up, however, and sales in Japan are booming. According to Seed Planning, since 2008 the home cleaning robot market has seen a 6-fold increase in yearly sales (approx. 380,000 units sold in 2012), and they project sales of 9o0,000 units in 2018. In a nation of about 128 million people, if realized that’s some serious market penetration. Given that homes in Japan generally aren’t all that big and don’t have a lot of carpeting, it’s all the more impressive. Among Japan’s massive, dominant middle-class, such expenditures are a luxury but not quite as economically extravagant as one might think – but still, 900,000!
In addition to evaluating brand preference and sales figures, Seed Planning’s survey among 400 cleaning robot owners and 300 non-owners also gauged reasons for consumers’ purchasing and not purchasing. Current owners included simple convenience and easing the cleaning burden as the most common reasons for buying, and, true to form in the Japanese consumer tech market, a lot of people just wanted to try a “cute” new product (in that vein, see video below for some of the best viral marketing cleaning robot makers didn’t but could have ever asked for). Non-owners cited cost and concerns over the robots’ ability to properly clean as the most common barriers to purchasing (best seller iRobot’s prices range from $650 – $800, Sharp’s Kokorobo models are comparable, and Tsukumoto Aim’s, at $100-$150 for the disc-shaped models, up to $400 for the unfortunately named “Hobot” glass cleaning model, are vastly more affordable).
Why Care? Because Live-In Social Robots Begin, Labor Shortages Pend, and $¥$¥$¥$¥$¥$!
Okay, to be fair, it’s understandable if you’re yawning at the ferociously unsexy topic of cleaning robots. But here’s the kicker: one has to fully grasp and appreciate that these unassuming little pucks of technology are the vanguard of personal service robot deployment and use. The quest toward a friendly, conversational, perhaps dressed-like-a-French-maid home and/or industrial service robot has to start somewhere – and clearly, it’s on. For now these simple machines operate within a very narrow spectrum of ability, but they are, nonetheless, primarily autonomous robots existing side-by-side with human beings, doing a job, becoming part of our conceptual landscape; these are the babysteps of human/robot integrative socialization, and while still novel to us, for future generations they might be simply obligatory and obvious.
Japanese society, as per usual, presents a unique market observation opportunity. Women do most of the cleaning and housework here, and if, as predicted and arguably very necessary, more women begin entering more of the workforce, in addition to the impending and unavoidable large-scale human labor crisis facing the country, then the seemingly over optimistic sales projection of 900,000 units in 2018 makes a lot more sense.
It’s often claimed, but seldom detailed how, the robotics industry is going to have any practical impact on the Japanese economy. (which it’s going to desperately need in 50 years when – and this is inevitable – 30% of what might be the world’s most advanced capitalist economy’s consumers have passed away, and due to extremely low birth rates, go unreplaced). Well, let’s see: how about 900,000 units times even the low-end cost of a cleaning robot plus maintenance, accessories, upgrades, etc.? Not a bad economic push, that.
For now, iRobot’s running away with the Japanese sales cake, but there’s no shortage of competitors on their way up. One review site, LesNumeriques, found 24 (!) viable models from around the world worthy of consideration:
So, there you have it. But, if even now the subject of cleaning robots does absolutely nothing for you, if you remain unmoved by the practical genesis of in-home, someday social robotics, if the intriguing demographic factors are just meh, and if you care little about potentially lots and lots of big-time money changing hands here in Asia, then we’ll simply leave you with these words:
Cat Riding a Roomba In a Shark Costume Chasing a Duckling
(and if that doesn’t strike a nerve, someone should take your pulse)
• • •
Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.
VIA: ITMedia (Japanese/日本語); MyNavi (Japanese/日本語); Seed Planning Market Research & Consulting (Japanese/日本語)
Images: iRobot; Sharp; Tsukamoto Aim; LesNumeriques
Sagawa Electronics’ new human exoskeleton, the much publicized Power Jacket MK3, just might have gone too far with that whole sincerest form of flattery thing. The imitative compliment they’re paying Team Skeletonics, an earlier-on-the-scene maker, isn’t exactly welcome.
• • •
Exoskeletons: We Want Them (and always have)
Amplifying human physical efficacy through technology, be it for strength, endurance, defense, sensory enhancement, or what have you, is as old as technology itself. From the dawn of tools, to a loincloth, to pants, to stronger pants, to chainmail, to hardened steel and synthetic armors, to force-enhancing, wearable, powered machines – the artificial “exoskeletons” for our fleshy mammalian bodies. There are any number of potential uses: rescue, military, law enforcement, awesome fun, etc.
While several American and Western European exoskeletons are in R&D, Japan, with a team including Cyberdyne’s HAL Suits, Panasonic’s Power Loaders, Honda’s Assist devices, Suidobashi Heavy Industries’ Kuratas mech, plus the two subjects mentioned herein, is taking and sprinting away with the cake. This surprises no one on earth.
From Japan: A New Kind of Exoskeleton, and… A New Kind of Exoskeleton(?)
The word “exoskeleton” implies adherence to a fundamental design template, and most systems amplify or augment the arms or legs only, sometimes both. Of various bulkiness, a given exoskeletal chassis is usually about the same size as the wearer and tends to augment only specific large muscle groups.
But, in 2011, a small Okinawan company, Team Skeletonics, completed development on a novel means of means of augmenting and projecting not just our legs or arms or both, but our entire physicality. Their Skeletonics Suit is not just something to be worn on your limbs, but a device one enters and thereby transforms into a 2.5 m/8’2″ tall mechanical presence. An amusing YouTube video was made. The suits were offered for sale on July 7, 2013.
Then, last week, a Tokyo company, Sagawa Electronics, Inc., completed development on a novel means of means of augmenting and projecting not just our legs or arms or both, but our entire physicality. Their Power Jacket MK3 is not just something to be worn on your limbs, but a device one enters and thereby transforms into a 2.25 m/7’4″ tall mechanical presence. Also. An amusing YouTube video was made. Also. The suits were offered for sale on July 8, 2013. Yes, also.
Before digging too far into what the above phrasal redundancy implies, and bearing in mind that Team Skeletonics went public with their device well over two years ago, let’s have a look:
Okay, to those not singing in the robo-geekery choir, these might look like considerably different devices. But, for those of us all day watching robot videos on YouTube (it’s super serious research, mom!), it was glaringly obvious that the Power Suit MK3 is at best a tribute, homage, or a very specifically inspired work; at worst, a brazenly bootlegged facsimile of the Skeletonics Suit.
Inspired Emulation or Infringement?
In barely over a week’s time, Sagawa Electronics has received vastly more press for the Power Jacket MK3 than the Team Skeletonics Suit has in over two years. Understandably so, Team Skeletonics is more than a bit prickly about it.
Contacted for comment about the similarities and accusations of exoskeletal piracy being aimed at their competitor, Team Skeletonics first reminded us of their mantra and self-given mandate: “To be a starter to spread new helpful technology for the world,” and made sure to mention that “We are happy.” Which was funny.
But then it got a bit more serious.
They were eager to point out that they have no affiliation with Sagawa Electronics, and that the year-old firm’s claim to “The first powered suit available to the public” are false. They then conceded that, while there’s something of an uproar in robotics circles here in Japan, and while it does appear that their work has been copied, there’s not much the small company can do. Born from one of Japan’s STEM-focused high-school/college hybrid kosen schools, the 5-man company seems pretty powerless to take on a firm backed by the prestigious Chiba Institute of Technology (CIT).
The most profound thing they had to share, perhaps in an effort to avoid accusations of sour grapes or simple jealousy over Sagawa Electronics’ superior marketing skills, was this publicly available archived blog post, allegedly attributable to a then CIT grad student, the eventual creator of Sagawa Electronics’ Power Jacket MK3:
“This picture of the AEE MK2 prototype carriage is basically a copy of the Skeletonics frame system.”
(translated; full text below*)
That’s nearly 2 years ago, and more than half a year after Team Skeletonics went public with their suit. Amid numerous accusations and inquiries, two days ago Sagawa Electronics made this statement via Twitter:
“To Whom it May Concern: the Power Jacket MK3’s underlying structure has no relation to that of Team Skeletonics. Please bear this in mind when making inquiries. We apologize for not clarifying this sooner.”
(translated; full text below**)
So, On One Hand: Damn, busted.
When asked if they could confirm or deny the accuracy and/or attributability of the excerpted blog post, Sagawa Electronics’ just kinda… skipped that question.
Maybe because, should one strip off those white plastic panels, we’re looking at nearly the same device. The new Power Jacket MK3 effectively is a Team Skeletonics Suit equipped with master/slave-actuated servo motors, i.e., Skeletonics is a manually controlled direct force-feedback system powered by the operator, and the Power Jacket MK3 is fly-by-wire. Mechanically though, they’re very, very similar products.
Structural and mechanical similarities become even more glaring when you see the suits in motion, so have a watch – and again, bear in mind the two-year difference.
SKELETONICS DEMO – Published on Nov 15, 2011
POWER JACKET MK3 PROMO – Published on Jul 5, 2013
They’re both fun, but the videos do present somewhat damning evidence; seems like Sagawa got caught KIRFing in public.
But On the Other Hand: In truth, Sagawa Electronics really isn’t an evil tech pirate…
Contacted for comment, Sagawa Electronics indicated that they spent a year developing the MK3 specifically, and that its mechanics are considerably different from that of Team Skeletonics’ suits. They do admit, however, that earlier versions, e.g., the prototype MK2 chassis pictured above, were in fact copies of Team Skeletonics’ work (for which they claim to have been given explicit permission).
Now, for a third party observing maker B copying maker A’s work, or, if you’re the one doing the copying, it’s much easier to dismissively rationalize that Imitation is the Sincerest form of Flattery. But, if you’re the one being imitated, copied, perhaps outright ripped off, if you’re Team Skeletonics, that platitude does little to assuage feelings of, well, you know, being pissed that someone stole your stuff.
To their credit, Sagawa Electronics does seem fairly conciliatory about the whole thing, so just maybe, maybe they should have been a bit more upfront about their inspiration and tossed some acknowledgement in Team Skeletonics’ direction. They took a good idea, and in a few ways, totally did improve it. It’s just the the Team Skeletonics device was so very unique, and from a distance, physical or conceptual, the suits do look almost exactly the same.
They’re not thieves or bad guys, but given their way more than healthy dose of inspiration from Team Skeletonics’ work, Sagawa should have spent a little less on their slickly produced, schoolgirl-exploiting, tongue-in-scarred-cheek HD YouTube video, and a little more on paying dues to the 2.5 m/8’2″ shoulders they’re standing on.
So, moving forward: Sagawa Electronics, maybe be a bit more considerate; Team Skeletonics, time to let go, and maybe invest in an HD camera. Let both parties embrace that everything, everything, everything is a remix – and go focus on making more awesome stuff.
This Has Been More than a Robo-Geek Fight & Competition Breeds Innovation (which Japan needs)
After about 5 minutes of hijinks and goofing off in Sagawa Electronics’ promo piece, the second video above, the host goes a bit into the vital role robotics and cybernetics play now and will continue playing in keeping Japan’s economy afloat – nothing at all to joke about – you gotta big picture this stuff. As Japan’s population declines, innovations in general robotics and this kind of human enhancement actually are going to help prop up the world’s 3rd-largest economy.
And speaking of innovation, Team Skeletonics might be upset, but they’re hardly sitting on their hands and pouting about how they’ve been globally upstaged two years after cranking out the analog version of essentially the same product. Exonnecs, their next big deal project, a 3.5 m/11′ tall, 200 kg/440 lb, transforming exoskeleton that, in mobile mode, will hit 80 KPH/50 MPH, is already underway. Akihabara News’ robotics coverage will keep you hip.
Related Coverage:
Dear Assistive Robot Industry, We Need You! Sincerely, Rapidly Aging Japan.
Japanese Science & Engineering: STEM Needs More Women, But Japan Needs More Children
• • •
*Full Japanese Text Attributed to Sagawa Electronics’ President:
「2011年10月18日 テーマ：AEE Mk-2 試作２号機の写真です。 完全なパクリモデルです。この機体でスケルトニクスの特性を概ね理解しました。 多分、両腕をバランサーとして使える分、竹馬より機動力は高いです。 あと、大切なこと 初めてでも大丈夫 ちゃんと乗って歩けました、本当に拡張されています。 でも、筋肉がプルプルします。明らかに過負荷。ま、欲張って延長しすぎたのが原因かと。 スケルトニクスの１．５倍はあります。（見た目比較） あ、ジャンプも出来ましたよ。重くなってるのにジャンプできるんです。 なんでだろ・・・ ちなみに、１ヶ月で完成。前例があると簡単。」
Source: http://ameblo.jp/aee-me; Provided by Team Skeletonics
**Full Japanese Text from Sagawa Electronics’ Twitter Feed:
「お知らせ 弊社のパワードジャケットはTeam Skeletonics(スケルトニクス)様の機体とは関係はありません。 問い合わせの際は間違いの無いようお願いいたします。 また、対応が遅れましたことを深くお詫び申し上げます。」
Source: Official Sagawa Electronics Twitter Account @poweredjacket
• • •
Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.
Resources & Sources: Team Skeletonics; Sagawa Electronics, Inc.
Images: Team Skeletonics; Sagawa Electronics, Inc.
Honda bills ASIMO as the world’s most advanced humanoid robot, and in many ways, he totally is. He’s sort of an ambassador for all robots, and people love the super-tech, friendly looking little machine. But, people also love to watch a train wreck, so much so, they’ll make one up.
• • •
Is ASIMO Totally Blowing His First Big Role?
On Wednesday, July 3, a third-generation ASIMO robot began a month-long stint greeting and interacting with guests at Tokyo’s Miraikan (“Future Pavillion,” roughly translated), or National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. Just one week in, a surprisingly large flock of, let’s call them technological chicken hawks, has swooped in to declare ASIMO’s awkward, confused performance a flop, an embarrassment for Honda, too much too soon, on and on (as foretold in last Friday’s JTFF). The bulk of the coverage has not been kind.
Nor accurate.
See, there’s this one detail that’s getting overlooked, a detail one might consider fundamentally, perhaps intrinsically relevant to any media coverage of the month-long exercise. Seems few got the memo, so here you go:
Contrary to coverage offered up by nearly every tech news source or column, ASIMO is not at the Miraikan to be a tour guide. ASIMO is not reporting to his first job. ASIMO is not there to demonstrate his latest physical skills or AI reasoning or to dance-monkey-dance for the adoring crowds. It’s not a performance. What then, someone who writes for a living ought to ask, is Honda’s flagship robot doing in Tokyo at the All Things Future Building?
Well, the information was not easy to come by, but we rose to the challenge, and in a feat of nearly superhuman journalistic wrangling, we ummmm… just kinda, you know, casually clicked on Honda’s official news feed:
“TOKYO, Japan, June 26, 2013 – Honda Motor Co., Ltd. will conduct demonstration testing of ASIMO to verify the ability of the humanoid robot to autonomously explain its features while interacting with people. Working toward practical use of ASIMO to communicate with people, the testing will be conducted with the cooperation of the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (known as “Miraikan”) in Tokyo, Japan from Wednesday, July 3 through Friday, August 2, 2013.”
This revelatory quote was found after a grueling trudge through Honda’s lengthy and complicated announcement, scrutinizing and analyzing, divining nuance from the original Japanese text – all the things you’d expect from a boots-on-the-ground, Japan-based tech news source.
Except not really. Actually, we barely had to try. The above quote is the first paragraph of a 400-word, English language press release.
When picking such low hanging fruit represents the journalistic high ground, is it: Funny, or Sad? Discuss!
Turns out all the confused, awkward performances surrounding the ASIMO news have been… the news.
(lack of ) Accuracy and Realism in ASIMO Coverage
Among the unflattering coverage ASIMO’s received in the past week, it’s being widely reported, for example, that ASIMO doesn’t have voice recognition features, and that’s one of the reasons he’s bumbling the whole performance (again, not a performance). See, it’s not just the coverage’s thematic tone, lots of important details are also either M.I.A. or just wrong.
In fact, while they’re not part of the current exercise, ASIMO actually has highly advanced voice recognition capabilities. The robot can listen to three simultaneous commands from three individuals, instantly parse all three, and then look directly at each person and respond accordingly.
Oh, well to be fair, you’d have to know something about the robot to have those details. That’s probably pretty helpful with like, any topic one covers. You know, like, knowing stuff about it. Just sayin.
Historically, it’s also gone in the opposite direction. ASIMO is without doubt a fantastic machine, but on the other side of irresponsibility, since his debut the media has also poured mountains of undue gee-whizzery and gushing, ill-informed hyperbole all over Honda’s robot. Nearly all coverage of ASIMO’s previous performances (that were actual performances) has just zoomed right past the fact that they were combinations of exhaustive rehearsal, pre-programmed movements in a familiar environment, and that, a lot of the time, ASIMO was being straight-up remotely controlled (there was, however, at least one Technosnark purveyor who stood up to point this out).
It’s a love/hate celebrity-esque relationship that ASIMO has with the media.
What’s He Actually Doing There?
So as not to stand in criticism without providing what’s missing from a lot of the other work, let’s get back to some reporting on the purpose, aim, and point of ASIMO’s current exercises: the robot’s month at the Miraikan is actually a chance to test out new software and see how the robot interacts with real humans all by himself, without a net, au naturel, autonomously. ASIMO is running tests to help Honda engineers “Explore the possibility of two-way communication between humans and robots.” This implies groups of humans, not just one person giving commands.
And ASIMO is already quite proficient at one-on-one interaction, so a big part of the Miraikan exercise is to literally unleash the robot with everyday, highly variable, non-technical groups of people, and then just sorta, you know, see what happens. Honda’s working to figure out how the robot does with group dynamics; where are the holes, where are the shortcomings, and how best to weed out behavior we’d call, well, robotic.
This is an experiment with a data-collecting mandate, and Honda’s running a number of tests during exercise days (the public being part of the experiment doesn’t make it a performance). ASIMO is trying to pick up on gestures, give appropriate directions, collect and interpret the resulting data, and pour all of that into Honda’s feedback pool.
So the thing is, what’s news here is not ASIMO’s failure, the news is that the robot is actually attempting group-level communication with real live humans – all by itself. Let’s see… how many robots have ever done anything like that in the history of robotics? Oh yeah, ZERO. None. That’s the story, techno-chicken hawks!
Okay, settle down. Here’s a rough idea of what ASIMO is facing in these experiments:
ASIMO, I know you can’t understand this yet, but welcome to jerks, and a slice of the human condition.
Hoping for Hollywood-Style Robo-Trainwreck Will Disappoint
Unfortunately for the town criers drafting their next blob of digital pulp, ASIMO is only improving. And he’s not hurt by misplaced potshots and wildly-misaligned-with-reality lazyday reporting. Also unfortunate for the hack-tastic legions, while the times do always change, knowledge of one’s subject matter and journalistic integrity are not too much to ask, are not too quaint, nor too old fashioned.
Sensationalistic, celebrity obsessed, gotcha, witch-hunting, bullying, bandwagonny, hyena journalism might hurt us sensitive mammals, but here your model is inapplicable, son! Robots are the definition of indifferent. Even ASIMO, who looks cute and approachable and non-threatening, inside is just as cold, calculating, and ferociously impervious to crappy journalism as the human-sized, very humanlike, DARPA-funded, palpably menacing Boston Dynamics’ PETMAN/ATLAS robot.
ASIMO is built on nearly 30 years of bipedal humanoid research, and Honda’s only getting better at making him better – and there are several hints that a Fukushima-inspired big brother might be made public within a year or so (our coverage). Maybe Honda couldn’t help in the wake of Japan’s nuclear disaster, but they’re hard at work now, and they deserve their props (Akihabara News: Honda).
So, future ASIMO, if you’ve achieved sentience and are reading, this author and this publication are obviously the best choice for your exclusive, post-coming out of the intelligence closet interview – when you wake up, give us a call – we’ll tell it like it is.
• • •
Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.
VIA: All Over the Internet; MyNavi (Japanese/日本語)
Images: Honda; MyNavi
![Japanese Science & Engineering: The Vexing Conundrum of Women [WORKING]](https://i0.wp.com/www.akihabaranews.com/wp-content/uploads/images/0/60/135760/1.jpg?fit=300%2C300)
Japan’s double-dip demographics debacle, a rapidly aging society combined with decades of low birth rates, has yet another layer of complication: Japanese women are woefully underrepresented in STEM fields, but addressing the latter could worsen the former. And the other way around, too.
• • •
Female Scientists in Japan: Lacking Number, Lacking Identity
Japan’s METI, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, estimates that, while they comprise 43% of college students nationwide, women account for only 14% of those enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields (i.e., STEM; in this case, excluding social sciences). The percentage is slowly creeping up, but in the meantime, a large swath of the Japanese citizenry goes unrepresented in the scientific brain trust. Suffice it to say, women like Kanako Miura, tragically no longer with us, are among Japan’s rarest and most valuable social commodities.
Now, with next to no statistically significant exceptions, Japanese society is universally modern, 100% literate, and boasts an extremely affluent, dominant middle class. By no means is it a gender equality utopia, but on paper at least, most career options are reasonably open to all citizens regardless of sex. However, as is almost always the case, cultural traditions and long-accepted norms and mores rarely find perfect alignment with our highest ideals.
A few weeks back, the New York Times published an account of the stereotyping and understated yet powerful social stigma faced by Japanese women studying or working in STEM fields. Generally speaking, in Japanese pair bonding, science girls are considered less attractive and/or less amenable to traditional gender roles. Women pursuing STEM careers in Japan often feel out of place and struggle to maintain or even define a feminine identity. Plainly stated, sciencey Japanese women have a bit of a PR problem in the romance department – and yes, the problem lies equally with the men.
Changing Hearts & Minds… With a Catch
Anywhere in the world, the psyche of your average 14-20 year-old human is an awkward explosion of befuddled sexuality longing for validation. Naturally, these proto-citizens are desperate to minimize any factor that could jeopardize their chances for romance, and as the social hardships of the J-science girl are an easy to appreciate, easy to avoid barrier, exactly that happens – appreciation and avoidance. J-parents, being hip to this as well, have a tendency to push the proverbial Barbie into the hands of young J-girls who, if left to their own interests, might in greater numbers have self-selected a petri dish or microscope or particle accelerator – whatever represents the sciencey contrary to Barbie.
Aware of the problem, pro-science organizations in Japan are working to counter negative associations through a number of promotional programs, magazines, clubs, and even celebrity tours preaching the good news that: “Hey, dorky science girls are hott, too!” Not those exact words, but – you know. So good on them, and well done. Because in any civilized society, that it’s silly and immoral to argue against encouraging women toward STEM fields should be more than obvious.
Buuuuuut, the thing is, professional women with careers and such are less likely to have children, or if they do, less likely to have more than one or two. What the NYT piece doesn’t mention is that, if such pro-girl science recruitment programs are widely successful here in Japan, it adds interest to an already profoundly expensive social problem – a problem that might be vastly more dire than not enough ladies in lab coats.
Slowly, But Very Surely, the Japanese are Disappearing
First, without question many developed societies face a similar discrepancy between men and women in science, but few if any are simultaneously facing the sort of macro-scale social problem that’s bearing down upon all of Japan, and it’s a point that the Times, in their otherwise enjoyable coverage, sorta just drove right past.
The thing is, Japan’s aging society & declining population situation, the 人口問題 (jeen-kō moan-die; literally, “Population Issue/Problem”),* is a lot more than a debacle; this slow-moving monster is going to mature into a virtually unstoppable, nation-scale existential crisis. Nutshelled, it breaks down like this:
A. Statistically, about 1.2 children are born to each Japanese woman. A rate of 2 is necessary for population stasis.
B. A post-war and post-post-war baby boom means contemporary Japan is full of elderly people who will soon pass.
C. The Japanese are not at all interested in large-scale immigration. Powerfully, very not at all interested.
Given current demographics, this virtually guarantees that Japan’s population will drop from approximately 127 million now to about 93 million by 2063. To be clear, this isn’t a warning of what could happen – barring a fantastically unlikely, epic-scale baby boom, it’s a forgone conclusion. Should the trend continue, by 2113 Japan’s population will drop to around 40 million.
Put another way, over his or her lifetime, a Japanese child born today could witness a 70% decrease in their nation’s population. Unaddressed, this would also result in the utter decimation of a massive, globally intertwined economy that’s hugely dependent on goods and services bought and sold domestically; it’s not at all complicated: if a business loses 70% of its customers, then game over.
The above projections exclude the near-term development of some kind of morally acceptable human cloning or guaranteed-triplets-every-time or technological immortality… which might sound kinda of far out, but such things are not entirely infeasible (Google: The Singularity; Transhumanism). It’s foolish to dismiss out of hand the potential impact of technologies we can’t yet imagine, but they’re far from something to bet on.
Human Development Equals Population Stability or Decline, but…
While Japan’s is a singular case, the nation is not alone in facing population decline. That feature comes standard with long-term, broadly distributed economic success and liberal, rule-of-law-based social structures. e.g., the majority of countries near the top of the United Nation’s Human Development Index have relatively stable or declining populations. In contrast, Afghanistan’s fertility rate, along with that of all the least developed African nations, is outrageously high at 5+ births per woman.
Like anywhere, Japan’s young, healthy women of childbearing age bearing as many children as possible is pretty much the only tool in the shed. But ideal childbearing age happens exactly when a woman would be preparing for and beginning a STEM career. Oh, and STEM work aside, these days Japanese women are really starting to enjoy more social autonomy and are becoming ever more present in the broader, non-scientific workforce.
So, realistically, the cat’s outta the bag, the ship’s sailed, it’s しょうがない (show gaw nye; “it can’t be helped”).* The Japanese are not going to forestall this trend through a sudden surge of reproduction. Japan’s population is going to plummet, and biologically neither women nor men can do a thing about it.
The Time to Beg for Babies is Over – Do Science!
Should Japan aggressively incentivize baby making, or aggressively incentivize STEM studies? Practically speaking, given that the time to begin a career in science and the prime time for reproduction are essentially the same, simultaneously encouraging both is basically tail-chasing, zero-sum gaming of the status quo.
“No complex social system can be rapidly changed without significant damage to or destruction of the system itself,” …goes the classic sociological aphorism – and we know that the inverse, i.e., complex systems too rigid even for gradual change, also invariably fail. It doesn’t mean that the complex system that is contemporary Japanese society, the status quo, is too big to change or destined to collapse, it just means that both rapid change and stagnation are equally destructive.
All things considered, it’s much more feasible to focus more on getting Japanese women into STEM fields and, with a simultaneous campaign, work toward gradually bringing men around. Rather than blithely hoping against hope for a population boom, Japan should instead count on the female population’s potential contributions toward things like Japan’s advanced social robotics programs, JAXA’s growing contribution to the ISS and other space endeavors, and, of the most immediate practicality, the bionics and cybernetics initiatives aimed at assisting Japan’s aging population.
Growing and expanding Japan’s technological infrastructure and bringing those advancements to the world market – something accomplished before – is eminently doable once again. Stemming their population decline is not. So really, what other choice is there?
And so, Japanese women, go for the science! Also a good idea to have a nice long talk with Japanese men about their preconceptions. Because come on guys, science can be sexy… if you just let it.
• • •
Addendum: The World Should Watch
In a utilitarian sense, one might argue that Japan’s problem is Japan’s problem, and it’s a bum deal, but they’ve just gotta adapt and do the best they can. That makes a certain sense, but we’d be well-served to bear in mind that, though often predisposed toward lumbering and at times myopic internal self-management, as an economic and political entity Japan is about as internationalized and internationally committed as a nation-state can be.
To wit, though only 1.8% of the human population, Japan has the world’s 3rd largest economy, is globally 5th for both import expenditures and export revenue, is the largest trading partner of the world’s 2nd largest economy, and unbeknownst to many, is the #2 source of funding for the United Nations. If Japan slides, a lot of the world will slide with it. So, keep an eye on things over here, and if anyone’s got any good ideas, just, you know, let Japan know.
• • •
Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.
VIA: NYT Global; CIA World Factbook
Image: Wikimedia
*Yep, these are non-standard romanizations of Japanese. Go ahead and type it out using one of the standardized systems and see how many non-students of the language pronounce it correctly. Go ahead. Try. Do it!
A dedicated organization with a few dedicated staff is bringing robotics and engineering education to a part of Japan that’s about as rural as the hyper-densely populated country gets. The NPO Hito Project’s robotics courses are prepping kids for the robotics revolution!
• • •
Rural Japan & Robotics
Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island, is the geologically active, ruggedly mountainous home to about 10% of Japan’s total population. With about 1.6 million residents, mid-western Kumamoto City is the island’s second-largest metropolitan area, but by Japanese standards it is considered quite small, even quaint; clean water, friendly people, but mostly countryside. If you’re familiar with the United States, think Oregon or Washington, i.e., one or two big cities in the northwest, then lots and lots of small towns elsewhere.
Per capita, Japan as a whole is the most active and prodigious hub of robotics research, development, production, and usage on the planet – by far. The bulk of that, however, is centered in and around the seething metropolises of Tokyo and Osaka, so although even somewhat rural Kumamoto City does have a considerable tech-industry presence (Honda, OMRON, Tokyo Electron, etc.), it’s not exactly a hotbed of robotics activity.
But roboticists, engineers, and their creations don’t have to come from the big cities up north, and an enthusiastic non-profit organization is laying the groundwork to prove as much.
NPO Hito Project’s Robot Summer School
Some here argue that an unforeseen byproduct of Japan’s long-running economic success, fueled in no small part by robotic manufacturing and industrial automation, has been the atrophy of practical, everyday physical problem solving skills. In a strange irony, the machines that helped propel Japan to an economic powerhouse have obviated the need for mechanical know-how among the nation’s youth. The NPO Hito Project wants to plug this gap and make sure that Japanese kids are not just playing with robot toys, but building them – and taking the practical know-how and basic principles into higher levels of education and eventually the workforce.
Robot Summer School (“robotto suh-muhh skuu-ru,” for those who appreciate Japanese pronunciation!) is currently held in three municipalities in the Kumamoto metro area. According to the Hito Project’s program coordinator Mr. Maehara, on Saturday, June 1st, 24 students aged 9-12 began a 4-hour robotics, engineering, and programming session in coastal Uto City. Another 4-hour class was held the following Saturday. Next were the Kumamoto City classes, this time with 39 students aged 9-15. Again, 8 hours spread across two consecutive Saturdays. Last weekend saw the first class for 16 students aged 9-15 in quite rural Kōshi City. With the completion of Kōshi City’s second class, the Robot Summer School will wrap up this Saturday.
In conducting the standard theory-to-programming-to-hardware courses, the Hito Project provides various iterations of the tried, tested, and well-liked and reviewed Lego MINDSTORMS robotics kits to each team of 2-3 students. And really, any kid who ends up at Robot Summer School is going to be hip to Legos. The only real problem with Legos is when you’re building something awesome and you run out of Legos.
This year marks the 5th anniversary of Robot Summer School, its widest reach, and the highest enrollment yet. Most grade schools and junior high schools, even here in robo-friendly Japan, don’t going to have the time, resources, expertise – and frankly, the vision – to teach these subjects. But in just one month, the Hito Project will have provided nearly 80 young minds 8 intensive hours of hands-on robotics, engineering, and programming training (jump over here for some great photos of the kids at work).
Oh, and one more thing: it’s free.
Governmental organizations chip in, sponsors donate classroom space and funds for robotics kits, high school students participate and help out, and college students contribute their time as instructors and mentors. The model is really quite simple, and highly exportable. Take motivated and qualified teachers, a small investment in equipment, a little bit of marketing, and POW! The fundamentals of robotics, engineering, and programming – delivered to the brains of the youth.
Or the brains of 30- and 40-somethings. Because come on, who doesn’t want to learn how to build Lego robots?!
Skills for the Revolution
What will these kids do with the knowledge they’ve gained at the Hito Project’s Robot Summer School here in rural southern Japan? Who knows – perhaps they’ll design robotic farming equipment (southern Japan needs it – 50% of farmers are over 60 years old).
Realistically, most of the Robot Summer School students won’t end up in robotics-specific careers, but they will have gained not only a basic knowledge of robotics systems at the physical and software levels, but also invaluable problem-solving logic and mechanical aptitude. Who among us, at any age, couldn’t use more of that?
The global resurgence of all things robotic has been likened to the rise of the personal computer or even the DotCom Revolution, but this time, we’re really paying attention – we see it coming, and we’re getting ready.
The Hito Project is all-in, and they’re taking action. How’s your community doing?
• • •
Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.
Info & Images: Hito Project (Japanese/日本語); Lego MINDSTORMS
A dedicated organization with a few dedicated staff is bringing robotics and engineering education to a part of Japan that’s about as rural as the hyper-densely populated country gets. The NPO Hito Project’s robotics courses are prepping kids for the robotics revolution!
• • •
Rural Japan & Robotics
Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island, is the geologically active, ruggedly mountainous home to about 10% of the total population. With about 1.6 million residents, mid-western Kumamoto City is the island’s second-largest metropolitan area, but by Japanese standards it is considered quite small, even quaint; clean water, friendly people, but mostly countryside. If you’re familiar with the United States, think Oregon or Washington, i.e., one or two big cities in the northwest, then lots and lots of small towns elsewhere.
Per capita, Japan as a whole is the most active and prodigious hub of robotics research, development, production, and usage on the planet – by far. The bulk of that, however, is centered in and around the seething metropolises of Tokyo and Osaka, so although even somewhat rural Kumamoto City does have a considerable tech-industry presence (Honda, OMRON, Tokyo Electron, etc.), it’s not exactly a hotbed of robotics activity.
But roboticists, engineers, and their creations don’t have to come from the big cities up north, and an enthusiastic non-profit organization is laying the groundwork to prove as much.
NPO Hito Project’s Robot Summer School
Some here argue that an unforeseen byproduct of Japan’s long-running economic success, fueled in no small part by robotic manufacturing and industrial automation, has been the atrophy of practical, everyday physical problem solving skills. In a strange irony, the machines that helped propel Japan into a modern economic powerhouse, it’s argued, have obviated the need for mechanical know-how among the nation’s youth. The NPO Hito Project wants to plug this gap and make sure that Japanese kids are not just playing with robot toys, but building them – and taking a practical understanding of the basic principles of robotics engineering into higher levels of education and eventually the workforce.
Robot Summer School (“robotto suh-muhh skuu-ru,” for those who appreciate Japanese pronunciation!) is currently held in three municipalities in the Kumamoto metro area. According to the Hito Project’s program coordinator, Mr. Maehara, on Saturday, June 1st, 24 students aged 9-12 began a 4-hour robotics, engineering, and programming session in coastal Uto City. Another 4-hour class was held the following Saturday. Next were the Kumamoto City classes, this time with 39 students aged 9-15. Again, 8 hours spread across two consecutive Saturdays. Last weekend saw the first class for 16 students aged 9-15 in very rural Kōshi City. Then, with the completion of Kōshi City’s second class this Saturday, the Robot Summer School is a wrap.
In conducting the standard theory-to-programming-to-hardware courses, the Hito Project provides each team of 2-3 students one of the tried, tested, and well-liked & reviewed Lego MINDSTORMS robotics kits. It’s an excellent strategy, really. Any kid who ends up at Robot Summer School is going to be hip to Legos, and the only real problem with Legos is when you’re building something awesome and you run out of Legos.
This year marks the 5th anniversary of Robot Summer School, its widest reach, and the highest enrollment yet – and it fills a definite need. Most grade schools and junior high schools, even here in robo-friendly Japan, don’t have the time, resources, expertise – and frankly, the vision – to teach these subjects. But in just one month, the Hito Project will have provided nearly 80 young minds 8 intensive hours of hands-on robotics, engineering, and programming training (jump to the Facebook page for some great photos of the kids at work).
Oh, and one more thing: it’s free.
Governmental organizations chip in, sponsors donate classroom space and funds for robotics kits, high school students participate and help out, and college students contribute their time as instructors and mentors. The model is really quite simple, and highly exportable. Take motivated and qualified teachers, a small investment in equipment, a little bit of marketing, and POW! The fundamentals of robotics, engineering, and programming – delivered to the brains of the youth.
Or the brains of 30- and 40-somethings. Because come on, who doesn’t want to learn how to build Lego robots?!
Skills for the Revolution
What will these kids do with the knowledge they’ve gained at the Hito Project’s Robot Summer School here in rural southern Japan? Who knows – perhaps they’ll design robotic farming equipment (southern Japan needs it – 50% of farmers are over 60 years old).
Realistically, most of the kids probably won’t end up in robotics-specific careers, but they will have gained not only a basic knowledge of robotics systems at the physical and software levels, but also invaluable problem-solving logic and an enhanced mechanical aptitude. Who among us, at any age, couldn’t use more of that?
The global resurgence of all things robotic has been likened to the rise of the personal computer or even the DotCom Revolution, but this time, we’re really paying attention – we see it coming, and we’re getting ready.
The Hito Project is all-in, and they’re taking action. How’s your community doing?
• • •
Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.
Info & Images: Hito Project (Japanese/日本語)
Hito Project Facebook Page
The Leading Exchange in a Business Getting Attention
CEO Mark Karpeles, along with Marketing Officer, Gonzague Gay-Bouchery, is running a company in the Shibuya area of Tokyo that has gained quite a lot of attention recently. That company, Mt.Gox, handles more than 60% of all Bitcoin trading volume worldwide and has assumed leadership in the space of this decentralized, alternative currency.
This, the leading exchange in a business opportunity that now features investment funds and that is attracting venture capital investment in both related companies and in Bitcoins themselves, with investors reportedly including Andreessen Horowitz and the Winklevoss twins.
Perhaps because of its size and leadership in the space, Mt.Gox has become the face of Bitcoins – and it has received the most scrutiny. Most governments, notably the US government, have taken a skeptical approach with Bitcoins and it seems as though Mt.Gox is one of the main targets so far. The US government has already taken action, recently freezing a US-based account operated by Mutum Sigillum LLC, a subsidiary of Mt.Gox, ostensibly due to compliance issues.
But Mark and Gonzague said they would not – and could not – comment on any issues related to the US government. And they said they are not bothered by what’s going on there.
This, the world’s leading Bitcoin marketplace, is a place of passion for what the currency means for the future of international business. Despite some recent inconveniences, they are confident about the future of Bitcoins and their future role in the global economy and I had the opportunity to hear it first-hand from these 2 leaders in the space.
Mt.Gox’s View on Bitcoins
First of all, they said, Bitcoins will not replace currency as it exists now. BUT, it could inspire the future of currencies. Today, some feel that currencies are stuck in a terrestrial, local mindset. US dollars, Euros, Japanese Yen – these are currencies used around the world but their supply, policies, etc. are dictated and controlled by the central banks or regulating bodies in their home domestic markets.
“Holders of these currencies are at the mercy of the system,” Gonzague explained, “your relative wealth in the world is tied to the economic well-being of your home currency. A bank can restrict or even control what you are doing. PayPal can restrict what you are doing. Maybe the credit card company will limit the amount that you can use on your card. Or, like a lot of us in the digital age, you don’t have a local telephone line or address, which can negatively impact your status with financial institutions.
“Bitcoins allow you to have wealth outside of the traditional parameters, have flexibility and ultimately have control over your finances. Wealth becomes truly global, it becomes transparent, and it becomes unencumbered by the restrictions – and exorbitant fees – imposed by the current financial industry.”
A “Decentralized Crypto-Currency”
Bitcoins, have been called a “decentralized crypto-currency” and both parts of that label are critical to why, its promoters feel, it is the model of the future of money.
Decentralized – There is no dispute that international travelers and business people have a real need for ease of access, and liquidity of funds as they operate across borders. But the current framework, according to Mark and Gonzague, is not truly global and is not efficient. Currently, during traveling, or when transferring money to clients overseas, people and businesses are levied with fees and taxes and have to wait up to several days to wire money or to receive wired money. Money transfers are subjected to a higher degree of regulation and scrutiny then are transactions made domestically.
Bitcoins, for the first time, offer an international currency, for international travelers and business people – a decentralized currency that is equally valuable and easy to use among anyone, anywhere, across borders or not.
“We are not Americans, French or Japanese,” explained Gonzague, “we are Earthlings. This is the first means for people to carry ‘value’ around the world, and it is the first chance for one ‘currency’ to be used anywhere – for example, 2 people, 1 in Paris, 1 in New Zealand – they can work together as if they are next door, making payments to each other, without fees, instantaneously, and with a common currency that both can use just as easily.”
Crypto-currency – Bitcoins have several technical advantages over other forms of currency. They are completely digital but they rely on cryptography (encrypting and decrypting as required steps for validity) and are virtually impossible to steal or counterfeit. One of the security fears of Bitcoins has been so-called “double-spend” where you pay someone in Bitcoins, retrieve it back and spend it again.
“Impossible.” Mark explains, quite convincingly. “The level of robustness of the cryptography used with Bitcoins is so great that it is almost impossible to have the amount of CPU to even try it. My estimates are that it would take 64 times more power than all of the CPU required to “mine” all 21 million Bitcoins.”
Another aspect of the cryptography that makes Bitcoins ultimately more secure and safe to use is something called a ‘block chain’ – a sort of transaction ledger. All transactions between holders of a Bitcoin are logged, proving the transfer of Bitcoins in payments between 2 parties and making it virtually impossible to steal. Within the block chain, the recipient of a Bitcoin, by virtue of how they are set up, would be logged, so the payer of a Bitcoin gets absolute proof of the payment recipient and the exact time when a transaction is made.
Add to these points a 3rd feature: Finite Supply and Inherent Value (like gold). Bitcoins take effort to be created (or “mined”) requiring massive computing power, and the volume at which they can be mined is strictly controlled through an algorithm, and ultimately, the absolute volume of Bitcoins is limited to 21 million. Also, Bitcoins are considered by many to be a better inherent asset than gold – unlike gold, there are no storage requirements, no insurance, no physical burdens, etc.
The combination of the 3 – Decentralized, Cryptography, Inherent Value – make Bitcoins arguably more reliable, more convenient, more transparent, and potentially more valuable for an increasingly globalized world.
Mark summed it up: “Who says that in a global economy, with communication happening instantaneously, with information available instantaneously, with people making decisions with implications straddling borders and jurisdictions, that my payment options should be limited to a currency tied to one arbitrary political territory of the world, whose monetary policy is in the interests of that territory, and whose currency can be printed or withheld at will without an intrinsic value behind it other than the faith I have in that lone government?”
Not surprisingly, currently there is no agreement by any government regarding what exactly Bitcoins are and how they should be handled. But it is a given that governments are not going to give up their control over monetary supply or financial transactions easily and general acceptance of Bitcoins, if it happens at all, will be a bottoms-up process.
What About Japan?
Which brings us to Mt.Gox’s status in Japan and its future. They have been in discussion with the Japanese authorities – the Financial Services Agency (FSA) – for 1 and 1/2 years about the business and how it should be regulated. And as an example of how difficult it is to accurately peg what Bitcoins are, the Japanese authorities, to date, say that Mt.Gox does not need a financial license. “There are 3 kinds of licenses for financial activities in Japan and what we do is actually not covered by any of them, so at the moment, the FSA says we are outside of their jurisdiction. There has been discussion about trying to fit us under one of the licenses or to make a new license for our business, but it is not clear where it is going to go at this point.”
To date, the vast majority of the company’s business has been outside of Japan, which is likely why there hasn’t been much concern by the Japanese authorities – yet. But this may change if interest in Bitcoins in Japan starts to grow as it has in Europe and the Americas.
Some More Background…
Some people think that Bitcoins are a Japanese invention and that Mt.Gox is a natural outcropping of that. But while the inventor of Bitcoins signed the registration documents as Satoshi Nakamoto, this was almost certainly an assumed name and even the Mt.Gox guys are not sure who exactly this person was. For Mark and Mt.Gox, their role came via a connection through another venture business.
Mark started another company in Japan called Tibanne which is a hosting and domain management business. Mark actually built a Bitcoin client in order to accept payments by Bitcoin for his hosting business. Through this, Mark met Jeb McCaleb, founder of Mt.Gox. McCaleb had started the company as an online card trading exchange called “Magic The Gathering Online eXchange” – hence the name, Mt.Gox. But when he built the Bitcoin exchange, it soon became the majority of the business.
And eventually, in a classic entrepreneurial “I liked it so much I bought the company” moment, Tibanne acquired 88% of Mt.Gox and it became a subsidiary of Tibanne. McCaleb moved on to other ventures and Mt.Gox went on to become the #1 exchange in the business.
So What Does the Future Hold?
There are countless threats to the business, but in Mark’s view, countless ways for the business model to put its stamp on world business and the future of money and economics.
“Bitcoins have hit a certain critical mass of recognition, even if general acceptance is still sometime in the future. And we’re seeing the inevitable challenges and pushback felt in any new business model and leading edge opportunity. But if we can continue to explain the advantages of Bitcoins while providing a safe and robust service, we’ll be in a position to help reach the next important step forward toward a truly transparent, global world economy.”
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
