Hey Speech-Heads,

It’s no secret that my Speech Brother Eric B. and I love Creepy Talking Robots.  Just the other day, we were sitting around the old campfire, shelling peanuts and talking about all the Creepy Talking Robots we’ve profiled over the years: strange, vaguely sexual gynoids with feathered blond hair and trampy speech recognition engines.

And then it happened. We encountered a CTR the likes of which we thought did not–nay could not, could never–exist.  Prepare, Speech-Heads, for the absolute horror and lurid nightmare that is Roxxxy.

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Hey Speech-Heads:

Check out this brand new Creepy Talking Robot (CTR):  Ibn Sina, the world’s first Arabic conversational humanoid robot.

This CTR comes at you via Acapela Group and the Interactive Robots and Media Lab at United Arab Emirates University.

Check out this link for more information.  And check out this and this for samples of the speech technology behind Ibn Sina: Acapela’s brand new bilingual voice Nizar.

As my Speech Brother Eric B. would say: “Dog will hunt.” 

Hey Speech-Heads:

It’s like my Speech Brother Eric B. always says: “Anyone can make an IVR, but only a Speech Mastermind can give the people what they want: a Creepy Talking Robot.”

Check out this link–sent to Speech Tech Blog by a Reader/Creepy Talking Robot (CTR) Fan.

Unfortunately, we have yet to ascertain what is going on this photo and what this CTR is all about.  I have to admit, I like it’s sense of style and haircut.  Additionally, the Telegraph seems to understand the malicious potential of CTRs as evidenced by its headline: Humanoid Robots Prepare To Take Over.

But fear not, Speech Tech Blog will get to the bottom of this.  I currently have the interns chained to their desks, researching this CTR and making me coffee.

Oh Sweet Mother of Speech!

My Speech Brother Eric B. just sent me the most terrifying Creepy Talking Robot Update ever.   Check out this post from Pink Tentacle about RIBA the Robot Nurse from RIKEN.

Now technically, RIBA–and her male counterpart RI-MAN–doesn’t speak.  However, these robotic nurses do respond to voice commands.

Let’s Go To The Videotape:

Speech Heads, it seems like even researchers and technologists from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) have also been struck with this summer’s creepy talking robot fever.

According to a New York Times article today, a group of a-list scientists that included Eric Horvitz, researcher from Microsoft, and William Joy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, convened at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on Monterey Bay in California to do nothing but talk about robots. At the center of their conversation: whether or not robotics was advancing to a point at which they might encroach on human liberty and build smarter-than-man selves to exterminate the scattered fleshbags that populate Earth in twisted Karel Capek-like scenarios. Among such scenarios “What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being?”

They pondered heavily over everything from predator drones to robots which can find plugs to recharge themselves, trying to outline recommendations that could prevent a terminator-like post-apocalyptic existence.

Click here for full details.

This week’s New York Times robot piece follows a brilliant expose the paper did last week about Japanese men who are in love with body pillows.

Incidentally, my brother Adam B.’s first love was actually an old futon mattress, which raised my suspicions. A robot story? A man loves pillow story? Was he secretly moonlighting for the Times, pushing his agenda on its readership? Alas, no, Speech Heads. Turns out his subscription to the  paper is going to be up at the end of the month and the paper is just making a desperate bid to get him to renew by targeting articles at him. The newspaper industry must be in a real bad way…

If there are two things that my Speech Brother Eric B. loves, they are Speech and Fashion.

So naturally, he was frolicking and doing victory laps and slapping high fives and pounding out Terrorist Fist Bumps when we came across the following Speech Gem.

For Japan’s Fashion Week in Tokyo, the Institute of Industrial Technology Agency developed a Creepy Talking Robot (CTR) that can walk the catwalk and interact with the audience via speech recognition.

Check out this link for more information about the creators of this CTR–code named HRP-4C.  Or, if you are feeling particularly brave, check out this slide show.

As for Eric B. and me, you know where we can be found: On The Speech-Enabled Cat Walk:

In all honesty, my Speech Brother Eric B. and I love Creepy Talking Robots a little bit too much.

While some people spend nights out at clubs, meeting ladies, gambling, and taking methamphetamines, Eric B and I spend our leisure time hunting for the very latest in Creepy Talking Robot News.

And so it was last night, when we stumbled across a true speech gem from Cracked.com.

Brace yourselves, Speech Heads, and wait for it: The Top 7 Creepiest Real-Life Robots.  And let me just say this: These Babies Are Speech-Enabled.

Check out the Robert Brockway’s great story on Cracked.com for all the details, capabilities, analysis, videos, and a whole lot more.

I could probably spend the rest of my life writing about these robots.  But sadly, I have other speech duties.

So, for now, take a look at Brockway’s Top 7--some of which you Speech-Heads may recall from past posts.

7. Geminoid

6. Simroid

5. Albert Hubo

4. Jules

3. Actroid

2. WD-2

1. CB2

Oh, Speech Technology, what have you done?