Yamaha's Motobot rides a motorcycle, is cooler than us (Tomorrow Daily 266)

[MUSIC] Greetings citizens of the Internet. Welcome to Tomorrow Daily, the best CNET talk show in the universe. I'm Ashley Esqueda and yes, there's no co-host, unless there are ghosts in this room. But that's because our new set's being built and your words have not gone unheard, and we'll tell you more about that soon. But for now, let's hit the headlines. [SOUND] I should tell you right up front, if you are terrified of robot bike cops or the idea of robot bike cops, you should probably look away for this story. Yamaha unveiled Motobot at The Tokyo Motor Show this week, a robot rider mounted on a Yamaha R1M Super Bike, With some slight safety modifications like training wheels on either side in case the robot puts the bike on its side accidentally. So what exactly is the point of sticking a futuristic looking robot onto a motorcycle aside from looking really, really cool? Yamaha says it wants to someday be able to build a robot that can ride on a motorcycle that isn't modified like this one is, and without assistance. Once they achieve that goal, the data and knowledge acquired during that process can be applied to rider safety and rider support technologies. Which is always a good thing, in my mind. Motobot is already feeling pretty confident about its existence. It already sent a message to writer Valentino Rossi, saying it was created to surpass him. [SOUND] That's creepy. Well, Let's be less creepy and talk about teddy bears, or more specifically, virtual reality teddy bears. Japanese startup Adawarp is working on an interesting experience that combines stuffed animals and virtual reality. They want to allow you to see through the eyes of a teddy bear. It's not just a simple point of view experience, though. The idea includes the ability to talk to people near the bear and hear their responses, turn the bear's head by turning your own head while it's in that VR headset and even move the bear's arms by using an Xbox controller. The inventor of the bear, Tatsuki Adinea says the bear can be used to keep in close touch over long distances but I personally thought this might be an excellent therapy, or teaching tool, for children if he can smooth out the movements and make them less terrifying. Adinea hopes to ship the robotic shell powering the bear by the end of next year for developers and a consumer version that's fully realized after that. Which I'm assuming the official name is going to be Virtual Rock Spin? You're welcome. It's not even really that great of an idea. All right guys, this last story is for anybody who has found themselves wishing they could make a full size wire frame prototype in the comfort of their own home. So all of us, right? I hereby introduce you to the Protopiper, a genius bit of technology from a team of researchers at the Human Computer Interaction Lab at the Hasso Plattner Institute. This is a delightful little tape gun that's been modded out to mold tape Tape into tubes which can then be attached to each other to create full size wire frame prototypes. Well obviously, you wouldnt be able to sit on or otherwise put weight on these prototypes, but the team who made the proto piper said It's actually a great tool for inventors or designers to get a feel for dimension and form at the earliest stages of design. Potentially saving cash in the long run by eliminating costs in creating more expensive and functional prototypes to early in the process. I'm also sure it will come in very, very handy for some hipster who wants to have quirky art pieces in their house. Alright guys, lets check out Mob Squad. [MUSIC] Producer Logan caught this week's Mob Squad online a few days ago. And since we both enjoy the Assassin's Creed franchise, we figured it was a no-brainer. Collin Firth is obviously also a fan of the Assassin's Creed franchise, and he created working versions of both the hidden blade and the rope launcher gauntlet featured in Assassin's Creed syndicate. The rope launcher is really nice to look at, and the initial blast of the rope with the help of a CO2 canister is pretty exciting to watch, but the actual hoisting isn't quite as Fast as we hoped it would be. I guess it's impressive the winch can lift Firth up to his desired location though. The hidden knife gauntlet on the other hand looks super nimble and deadly. Slicing up bags of grain and sheets without any problems. It can retract and extend with a simple wrist motion but honestly, I think I'd scared to stab my own hand if I was using it. So good job Colin on not injuring yourself. Full disclosure, Colin actually partnered up officially with UBI Soft to make these items. So they're kind of a promotional tool, but they also required a lot of work. So we do salute Colin for his efforts. All right guys. That is it for mod squad. We have a brand new viewer, brand new fan so let's check out our phonetographer for the day. [MUSIC] Our phonetographer for the day today is somebody who you might be familiar with, Neil, who has written into the show before. He has been kind of a fan of the show since day one which is pretty awesome. And now, there's a new fan of the show. This is Baby Jensen. I'm assuming somebody else snapped this picture with Neil's Lumia 635, but he tweeted to us, and he said, Baby Jensen, born six pounds, 12 ounces. You can use this on the show. Lumia 635, baby, and mom are doing amazing. So, welcome to the world, Baby Jensen, and we hope that your future is full of not creepy and amazing virtual reality teddy bears and definitely not Creepy, terrifying robot by Dot. If you guys want to submit your pictures to be considered for photographer for the day can email Tomorrow@cnet.com send us your name, your picture, your story about your picture, what device you took it with and of course give us permission to use it on the show. If you want to find us on the Internet we're Tomorrow Daily on Facebook and Twitter. I'm Ashley Esqueda on Twitter, producer Logan is @loganmoi. That is it for the show. If you wanna share it with somebody you can send them to tomorrowdaily.com. We always appreciate that. We'll see you guys next time with a brand new docket of weird science fact and science fiction. But until then, be good humans. Bye. [MUSIC]