Abstract: The present invention provides a robot apparatus that can perform appropriate actions in accordance with the ambient conditions, and a method of controlling the behavior of the robot apparatus.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a content management apparatus, including: content inputting means for inputting a content with which position information is associated; position information acquisition means for acquiring the position information associated with the content inputted by the content inputting means; tree production means for producing binary tree structure data corresponding to a binary tree having leaves to which contents inputted by the content inputting means correspond based on the position information of the contents acquired by the position information acquisition means; and determination means for extracting a node which satisfies a predetermined condition from among nodes of the binary tree structure data produced by the tree production means and determining those of the contents which belong to the extracted node as one group.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for processing information. In one implementation, an image processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit that acquires two or more images to be grouped together. The images include time information as attribute information. The image processing apparatus groups the images based on whether the intervals among times represented by the time information are greater than at least one threshold value. The images are managed in the form of a binary tree structure and handled in single or different groups based on comparing a threshold value with the standard deviations of intervals among the times so as to match a user's subjective intention.

Abstract: A robot apparatus in which the storage capacity necessary for holding motion data is diminished in representing the emotion by motions exploiting the body resources. In demonstrating component behaviors of the robot apparatus, the basic posture, as the posture at the start time of one or plural movements forming a component behavior, is changed to express the emotion. Specifically, the robot apparatus includes variations for expressing the emotion for the basic posture (basic posture for the emotion). The respective resources are actuated from the basic posture for the emotion and reversion is made again to the basic posture to demonstrate the emotion.

Abstract: The present invention provides an information processing apparatus for clustering a plurality of pieces of data in clusters corresponding respectively to nodes on layers in a tree structure by assigning each of the pieces of data to a leaf node of the tree structure. The information processing apparatus includes: metadata acquisition means for acquiring metadata of the pieces of data; and tree-structure processing means for finding a first distance and a second distance on the basis of the metadata and adding a new node to the tree structure on the basis of the first and second distances as a node having an attention node, which is assigned to attention data placed at an attention-receiving position in an array of the pieces of data arranged on the basis of the metadata of the pieces of data, as a child node.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a content management apparatus, including: content inputting means for inputting a content with which position information is associated; position information acquisition means for acquiring the position information associated with the content inputted by the content inputting means; tree production means for producing binary tree structure data corresponding to a binary tree having leaves to which contents inputted by the content inputting means correspond based on the position information of the contents acquired by the position information acquisition means; and determination means for extracting a node which satisfies a predetermined condition from among nodes of the binary tree structure data produced by the tree production means and determining those of the contents which belong to the extracted node as one group.

Abstract: Sentences corresponding to internal statuses of a robot device or the like are created and uttered, thereby expressing the internal statuses. The robot device or the like comprise means for recognizing an external status, and means for generating an emotion based on the internals status, whereby a change in the emotion is reflected upon a dialogue. The internal status is not associated with a sentence, but it exists independently of the system and is always varied depending on various external inputs and internal changes of the system. Accordingly, even when the same question is made on the robot device or the like, the contents of a reply are changed depending on the internal status at that time, and a manner of providing a reply also differs depending on the internal status.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit for acquiring a plurality of pieces of information to be grouped, the pieces of information including time information as attribute information, and an arithmetic unit for grouping the pieces of information acquired by the acquisition unit so that a portion in which a level of variation of intervals among times represented by the time information included in the pieces of information is greater than at least one threshold value is used as a boundary between groups.

Abstract: The present invention provides an information processing apparatus for clustering a plurality of pieces of data in clusters corresponding respectively to nodes on layers in a tree structure by assigning each of the pieces of data to a leaf node of the tree structure. The information processing apparatus includes: metadata acquisition means for acquiring metadata of the pieces of data; and tree-structure processing means for finding a first distance and a second distance on the basis of the metadata and adding a new node to the tree structure on the basis of the first and second distances as a node having an attention node, which is assigned to attention data placed at an attention-receiving position in an array of the pieces of data arranged on the basis of the metadata of the pieces of data, as a child node.

Abstract: The present invention provides a robot apparatus that can perform appropriate actions in accordance with the ambient conditions, and a method of controlling the behavior of the robot apparatus.

Abstract: In a robot apparatus, the storage capacity necessary for holding motion data is diminished in representing the emotion by motions exploiting the body resources. In demonstrating component behaviors of the robot apparatus, the basic posture, as the posture at the start time of one or plural movements forming a component behavior, is changed to express the emotion. Specifically, the robot apparatus includes variations for expressing the emotion for the basic posture (basic posture for the emotion). The respective resources are actuated from the basic posture for the emotion and reversion is made again to the basic posture to demonstrate the emotion. At this time, the robot apparatus 1 holds data, such as joint angles, in the course of the movements.

Abstract: The invention provides a robot apparatus and a robot controlling method wherein the robot apparatus can behave so that its user may not lose interest in the robot apparatus. A behavior management section (72) selects one of a seeking behavior and a knowledge utilizing behavior based on a behavior selection probability. When the behavior management section (72) executes the selected behavior (a), a reward (r) is provided from an environment/user (111). The behavior (72) updates a behavior value based on the reward (r) and applies the behavior value to the Boltzmann distribution to determine the behavior selection probability. Further, the behavior management section (72) varies the Boltzmann temperature based on input information. The present invention can be applied to a reinforced learning system for a robot.

Abstract: A robot is proposed which has a speech recognition unit to detect information supplied simultaneously with or just before or after detection of a touch by a touch sensor, an associative memory/recall memory to store action made correspondingly to the touch and input information (speech signal) detected by the speech recognition unit in association with each other, and an action generator to control the robot to make action recalled by the associative memory/recall memory based on a newly acquired input information (speech signal). The robot has also a sensor data processor to allow the robot to act correspondingly to the touch detection by the touch sensor. Thus, the robot can learn action in association with an input signal such as speech signal.

Abstract: Sentences corresponding to internal statuses of a robot device or the like are created and uttered, thereby expressing the internal statuses. The robot device or the like comprise means for recognizing an external status, and means for generating an emotion based on the internals status, whereby a change in the emotion is reflected upon a dialogue. The internal status is not associated with a sentence, but it exists independently of the system and is always varied depending on various external inputs and internal changes of the system. Accordingly, even when the same question is made on the robot device or the like, the contents of a reply are changed depending on the internal status at that time, and a manner of providing a reply also differs depending on the internal status.

Abstract: A walking-type robot device and its learning method are disclosed, wherein the robot device is caused to perform walking that accords with the parameters for controlling the walking, the walking is evaluated, and the parameters are updated so that the very evaluation is enhanced. Besides, a walking-type robot device is provided with a controlling means for controlling the robot so as to cause it to perform walking that accords with parameters which prescribe the driving phase of each leg of the time of walking, an evaluating means for evaluating the velocity of the walking, and a parameter updating means for updating the parameters so that the evaluation of the walking by the evaluating means is enhanced.

Abstract: A robot (1) is proposed which includes a speech recognition unit (101) to detect information supplied simultaneously with or just before or after detection of a touch by a touch sensor, an associative memory/recall memory (104) to store action made correspondingly to the touch and input information (speech signal) detected by the speech recognition unit (101) in association with each other, and an action generator (105) to control the robot (1) to make action recalled by the associative memory/recall memory (104) based on a newly acquired input information (speech signal). The robot (1) includes also a sensor data processor (102) to allow the robot (1) to act correspondingly to the touch detection by the touch sensor. Thus, the robot (1) can learn action in association with an input signal such as speech signal.

Abstract: An identifying apparatus and method and a robot apparatus capable of reliably identifying other moving objects or other objects, a position detecting apparatus and method and a robot apparatus capable of accurately detecting the position of a moving object or itself within a region, and a color extracting apparatus capable of accurately extracting a desired color are difficult to be realized. Objects are provided with identifiers having different color patterns such that the color patterns are detected and identified through image processing. Also, the objects of interest are given color patterns different from each other, such that the position of the object can be detected by identifying the color pattern through image processing. Further, a plurality of wall surfaces having different colors are provided along the periphery of the region, such that the position of an object is detected on the basis of the colors of the wall surfaces through image processing.

Abstract: A conversation processing apparatus and method determines whether to change the topic. If the determination is affirmative, the degree of association between a present topic being discussed and a candidate topic stored in a memory is computed with reference to a degree of association table. Based on the computation result, a topic with the highest degree of association is selected as a subsequent topic. The topic is changed from the present topic to the subsequent topic. The degree of association table used to select the subsequent topic is updated.

Abstract: An identifying apparatus and method and a robot apparatus capable of reliably identifying other moving objects or other objects, a position detecting apparatus and method and a robot apparatus capable of accurately detecting the position of a moving object or itself within a region, and a color extracting apparatus capable of accurately extracting a desired color are difficult to be realized. Objects are provided with identifiers having different color patterns such that the color patterns are detected and identified through image processing. Also, the objects of interest are given color patterns different from each other, such that the position of the object can be detected by identifying the color pattern through image processing. Further, a plurality of wall surfaces having different colors are provided along the periphery of the region, such that the position of an object is detected on the basis of the colors of the wall surfaces through image processing.