Batter up! Robot baseball takes a swing

It's good to see the recession in Japan hasn't killed robot research, even though many machines are now standing idle, as the New York Times reported recently.

The University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Information Science and Technology has produced a pitcher and batter robot duo that quick and precise.

The pitcher machine can send the ball into the strike zone 90% of the time. The batter, meanwhile, uses imaging technology that captures 1,000 frames per second to enable it to connect to the ball.

All they need is uniforms and they'll be ready for the big leagues.