Ontario man builds real-life female android
Updated Thu. Dec. 11 2008 6:29 PM ET
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe.../project_aiko_081211/20081211?hub=CTVNewsAt11
Geoff Nixon, CTV.ca News
For as long as he can remember, Le Trung has been obsessed with robots.
"When I was a kid, we watched a lot of anime robots," the 33-year-old told CTV.ca in a phone interview from his parents' home in Brampton, Ont.
"Gundam, when I was a kid...or Volton, Macross, whatever," Trung said, rhyming off the popular Japanese anime shows that fuelled his dream to build a robot of his own.
"Your head starts thinking: 'Robot, robot.' And I had to build one."
When he was in Grade 4, he built his first robot -- an effort that got him disqualified from the science fair in which it appeared.
His first robot could move around, shoot "bullets" and had a two-sentence vocabulary, Trung said.
Unfortunately, his robot had a run-in with a curious child who was hit with one of the robot's projectiles at the science fair.
"You get disqualified if you make a little kid cry, even if the sign says 'Do not touch!'" Trung said.
That was it for robots for a while, especially when his parents disapproved of his hobby.
"They don't like me building robots for some reason," he said.
"They said: 'When you grow up, you have got to be studying medicine or something. No robots.' So every time I built robots, they threw them in the garbage."
But Trung remained undeterred in his long-term goal.
As he made his way through high school and later earned three university degrees, in analytical chemistry, biochemistry and general science, he kept working on software on the side -- developing programming skills that would ultimately help him with his robot dreams.
While Trung, who has worked as a software programmer in recent years, has been unemployed for the past three months, he has worked steadily on Project Aiko -- an effort that has brought him closer than ever to reaching his dream.
From robot dream to robot reality
Aiko is a 32-kilogram female android that Trung began building in August of last year.
She is just under five feet tall, has brown eyes that can distinguish 300 faces per second and speaks 13,000 English and Japanese phrases.
Her skin is made of silicone and her insides are made of an expensive collection of wires, motors and various sensors.
In total, Trung has spent more than $20,000 developing Aiko, maxing out three credit cards in the process.
The silicone alone cost $6,000 -- but Trung insists it was a necessary expense.
He could have made Aiko out of rubber, "but it looks creepy when you touch it and it doesn't look as real," he said.
"There's nothing I can do about that, apparently silicone is more expensive than other materials."
According to the official Project Aiko website, the android can read newspapers, provide weather reports and tell different types of medicine apart.
Aiko can also distinguish between types of touch to her body and can even make toast.
But she cannot walk -- yet. Trung said he needs 14 motors worth $500 a piece to get Aiko walking, and until he gets a financial sponsor, that goal has to stay on hold.
Trung hopes to make Aiko capable of completing tasks that he hates to do.
On his wish list? Teaching Aiko to dust, to clean toilets and to clean his ears with a Q-tip.
"I hate doing those chores," Trung said.
"Like for God's sake, cleaning the toilet, I hate doing that. You might as well let someone else do it, right?"
But he admits there are limits to what he can teach Aiko to do.
"Anything I don't know, she doesn't know," Trung said.
Trung said he sees many applications for Aiko-type technology.
He believes such androids could one day be used as in-home nurses, or in service roles at major airports.
Project Aiko gains attention
Since Aiko hit the news in recent weeks, Trung has been the talk of the town on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
He's been written about in Canadian newspapers, as well as the United Kingdom's Daily Telegraph and Sun papers, and has been featured on CNN.
His videos of Aiko have logged over a million hits on You Tube.
"Most people think those videos are fake," Trung said, referring to Aiko's YouTube appearances.
Randy robot questions
But for all the attention that Aiko has garnered, one topic area has elicited the most questions: Anything and everything to do with sex.
And Trung has answered every question that he has been asked.
"Does she have breasts? I will say yes. Does she have nipples? I will say yes. Does she have a vagina? I will say yes. Are there sensors there? I will say yes," he said.
"Do I sleep with her? No."
Trung said he chose to make Aiko a female because he reasoned that a female android would be less threatening than a male android.
As for the questions about Aiko's anatomical details, Trung said he attempted to build an android that is as realistic as possible, plain and simple.
"For some reason, tabloids twisted the story around and there's nothing much you can do," Trung said.
But he admits there are some adult topics that Aiko is familiar with.
"If you talk dirty to her, she will talk dirty back," Trung said, admitting that an R-rated vocabulary was an unforeseen part of Aiko's development.
When he began building up Aiko's capabilities, Trung said he used a software program that scanned a series of random websites so she could download new words for her vocabulary.
But within a few short hours, the searching algorithm inadvertently brought her to some adult websites that allowed Aiko to pick up some "new words" that Trung had not intended for her to learn.
Project Aiko's future
For now, Trung hopes to land a sponsor for Project Aiko, in order to continue his dream.
He has applied for funding from many sources, but he hopes to find some interest for his technology in Canada -- but he admits he hasn't had much luck.
"I tried to get funding from Canadian companies, even Canadian grants, but they just say: 'Sorry, we don't fund basement work.' So, that's what they say."
As for Aiko's own future, the sky is the limit, Trung said.
"There is always room for improvement," he said. "It's never-ending."
Updated Thu. Dec. 11 2008 6:29 PM ET
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe.../project_aiko_081211/20081211?hub=CTVNewsAt11
Geoff Nixon, CTV.ca News
For as long as he can remember, Le Trung has been obsessed with robots.
"When I was a kid, we watched a lot of anime robots," the 33-year-old told CTV.ca in a phone interview from his parents' home in Brampton, Ont.
"Gundam, when I was a kid...or Volton, Macross, whatever," Trung said, rhyming off the popular Japanese anime shows that fuelled his dream to build a robot of his own.
"Your head starts thinking: 'Robot, robot.' And I had to build one."
When he was in Grade 4, he built his first robot -- an effort that got him disqualified from the science fair in which it appeared.
His first robot could move around, shoot "bullets" and had a two-sentence vocabulary, Trung said.
Unfortunately, his robot had a run-in with a curious child who was hit with one of the robot's projectiles at the science fair.
"You get disqualified if you make a little kid cry, even if the sign says 'Do not touch!'" Trung said.
That was it for robots for a while, especially when his parents disapproved of his hobby.
"They don't like me building robots for some reason," he said.
"They said: 'When you grow up, you have got to be studying medicine or something. No robots.' So every time I built robots, they threw them in the garbage."
But Trung remained undeterred in his long-term goal.
As he made his way through high school and later earned three university degrees, in analytical chemistry, biochemistry and general science, he kept working on software on the side -- developing programming skills that would ultimately help him with his robot dreams.
While Trung, who has worked as a software programmer in recent years, has been unemployed for the past three months, he has worked steadily on Project Aiko -- an effort that has brought him closer than ever to reaching his dream.
From robot dream to robot reality
Aiko is a 32-kilogram female android that Trung began building in August of last year.
She is just under five feet tall, has brown eyes that can distinguish 300 faces per second and speaks 13,000 English and Japanese phrases.
Her skin is made of silicone and her insides are made of an expensive collection of wires, motors and various sensors.
In total, Trung has spent more than $20,000 developing Aiko, maxing out three credit cards in the process.
The silicone alone cost $6,000 -- but Trung insists it was a necessary expense.
He could have made Aiko out of rubber, "but it looks creepy when you touch it and it doesn't look as real," he said.
"There's nothing I can do about that, apparently silicone is more expensive than other materials."
According to the official Project Aiko website, the android can read newspapers, provide weather reports and tell different types of medicine apart.
Aiko can also distinguish between types of touch to her body and can even make toast.
But she cannot walk -- yet. Trung said he needs 14 motors worth $500 a piece to get Aiko walking, and until he gets a financial sponsor, that goal has to stay on hold.
Trung hopes to make Aiko capable of completing tasks that he hates to do.
On his wish list? Teaching Aiko to dust, to clean toilets and to clean his ears with a Q-tip.
"I hate doing those chores," Trung said.
"Like for God's sake, cleaning the toilet, I hate doing that. You might as well let someone else do it, right?"
But he admits there are limits to what he can teach Aiko to do.
"Anything I don't know, she doesn't know," Trung said.
Trung said he sees many applications for Aiko-type technology.
He believes such androids could one day be used as in-home nurses, or in service roles at major airports.
Project Aiko gains attention
Since Aiko hit the news in recent weeks, Trung has been the talk of the town on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
He's been written about in Canadian newspapers, as well as the United Kingdom's Daily Telegraph and Sun papers, and has been featured on CNN.
His videos of Aiko have logged over a million hits on You Tube.
"Most people think those videos are fake," Trung said, referring to Aiko's YouTube appearances.
Randy robot questions
But for all the attention that Aiko has garnered, one topic area has elicited the most questions: Anything and everything to do with sex.
And Trung has answered every question that he has been asked.
"Does she have breasts? I will say yes. Does she have nipples? I will say yes. Does she have a vagina? I will say yes. Are there sensors there? I will say yes," he said.
"Do I sleep with her? No."
Trung said he chose to make Aiko a female because he reasoned that a female android would be less threatening than a male android.
As for the questions about Aiko's anatomical details, Trung said he attempted to build an android that is as realistic as possible, plain and simple.
"For some reason, tabloids twisted the story around and there's nothing much you can do," Trung said.
But he admits there are some adult topics that Aiko is familiar with.
"If you talk dirty to her, she will talk dirty back," Trung said, admitting that an R-rated vocabulary was an unforeseen part of Aiko's development.
When he began building up Aiko's capabilities, Trung said he used a software program that scanned a series of random websites so she could download new words for her vocabulary.
But within a few short hours, the searching algorithm inadvertently brought her to some adult websites that allowed Aiko to pick up some "new words" that Trung had not intended for her to learn.
Project Aiko's future
For now, Trung hopes to land a sponsor for Project Aiko, in order to continue his dream.
He has applied for funding from many sources, but he hopes to find some interest for his technology in Canada -- but he admits he hasn't had much luck.
"I tried to get funding from Canadian companies, even Canadian grants, but they just say: 'Sorry, we don't fund basement work.' So, that's what they say."
As for Aiko's own future, the sky is the limit, Trung said.
"There is always room for improvement," he said. "It's never-ending."
