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Temporary staffing agency People Staff Co. started a robot dispatching service. Two types of robots are now on call, the Hello Kitty ROBO that can work as a receptionist and the ifbot which targets the elderly care market. Both robots were developed by Business Design Laboratory. Now companies and hospitals can try out these robots before actually deciding to purchase - ahem hire - one.
Sony announced that it is quitting further development of the AIBO and QRIO robots, but I just found out that there is someone that jointly owns some of the QRIO related patents with Sony. His name is Jinichi Yamaguchi and he has founded a company, Yamaguchi Robotics Institute, which is willing to license those patents to interested parties. According to his website, he was able to strike a deal with Sony for joint ownership when he first started working for them as an outside adviser and later he played a key role in the development of the QRIO till he left in the summer of 2004. Eager to find out where this leads to......
