First up, Tomoaki Kasuga (Speecys, Japan) explained that robots might become an extension of our family and in some cases, even part of our family. Robots would be humanoid in shape, connected to the Internet (with their own IP address), suggesting and providing content for us.
Second came Frédéric Kaplan (EPFL, Switzerland) who sees robots shaped to fit the specific task intended for them.
Finally, to some whoops and cheers from the crowd, came Bruno Bonnell (founder of Infogrames and former CEO of Atari). He wanted to throw out Asimov’s laws of robotics. And then likened the classification of robots to that of different species. Finally he suggested that robotics would fuse with the human body (citing a watch that could, for example, monitor our body and inject us with necessary medicine to remedy a deteriorating condition).
Now how do we relate all of that to journalism?
Well, taking up Kasuga’s view that the robot would be humanoid in shape, robots would be able to physically deliver a newspaper or magazine to us. Or they would simply broadcast the days headlines to us as we went about our business. If we believe Kaplan then we might see more advanced versions of the E-Ink Flex Tablet Display? And if we subscribe to Bonnell, we might see implants that beam information directly onto our eyes.
Within the next few weeks the speakers slides will be online as will edited videos of the speeches. When they appear I’ll post them up.
A heartfelt thank you to organizer Lauren Haug for his kindness in providing me admission to the conference. LIFT Asia 08 has certainly left a lasting and memorable impression on me.
