Laughing, flywheel-driven mechanical bellows robot
WAHHA GO GO is a mechanical Japanese laughing robot that uses a flywheel and bellows; the accompanying text says something like, "Moving the bellows with the rotation of the flywheel energy in the wind 'artificial vocal'. Rashitsutsu the 'Pitch' 'formant' "amount of air flow' to control the machine like a human laugh."
WAHHA GO GO (via JWZ)
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That thing in action is deep in the nightmare zone of the uncanny valley, but the mechanics are über-cool.
Oh man, the crazy haired mad scientist guy at the end is just the cherry on the top.
The name is a play on "Maha Go Go" better known to English speakers as "Speed Racer".
This and other creations from Meiwa Denki：http://www.maywadenki.com/
That's no ROBOT.
It's a clever DEVICE, but my car has more potential for programmable self-direction. So does my thermostat (a device that used to be used as an example of the simplest sort of feedback-variable-action robot).
I don't think that comes anywhere near the uncanny valley. The uncanny valley is when at first you think of something as human only to find you're mistaken. I would find it very hard to think of that machine as any part human. Creepy, yes; human no.
The tone of the laughing brought immediately to memory Marvin from THHGTTG, the face helped that association to the movie version too. Anyway, great mechanical construction and really well done emulation of a larynx, much better than most electronic versions.
In the 70s-80s I recall seeing and sometimes buying cheap mechanical devices that emulated human laughs, cow moos, etc, then bringin them at school to have a good laugh with friends (and anger some professors:).
What if you heard that laugh over the telephone, though?
Nogs on the machining,
that stuff looks really well done. makes me wonder about the implications for mechanical vocal reproduction.
gorgeously well designed for no purpose greater than analog laughter. The damn Japanese have out-steampunked us!
it's self-evident, isn't it? when the robots take over, they will laugh.
Reminds me of an Isz from The Maxx...
The construction looks mostly very nice, yet the flywheel wobbles. Odd. Definitely creepy.
Imagine hearing that laugh when you were walking through a dark warehouse or alley. Would freak me out.
Duding Baring
I would like to have this in a garden, driven by a small fountain, in place of the tipping bamboo pipe.
A slightly more accurate text translation:
"It [the WAHHA GO GO] is a machine which harnesses the energy from the turning spring wheel to move the bellows, and uses the wind energy to ring its artificial vocal chords while also regulating the notes, resonance, and amount of air to laugh like a real human."
What a beautifully machined piece of kinetic sculpture. Love the aesthetic.
To me it sounds more like sobbing. Somebody give that mad scientist a hug.
Great, So now the terminators will have voiceboxes that laugh while they destroy us
They are going to sell plans and prototypes for this at their atelier in Tokyo. Last day is Sunday Aug 30.
Brief English version
http://www.maywadenki.com/info/090715-3_en.html
Japanese version with Gmap
http://www.maywadenki.com/info/090714-3.html
--Matt R.
That laugh reminds me of the river spirit's laugh as it leaves the bath house in "Spirited Away".
@jso
No, the Uncanny Valley is that area in along the axis of realistic robots between "cool, that's very life-like" and "wow, that's almost indistinguishable from human" where we get creeped out by the fact that the thing looks really realistic, but somehow just isn't right.
So, uh, this is ten times creepier for anyone who has seen End of Evangelion.
Like me.
*sobs in the corner*