Invoking Emotions into Robots
November 27th, 2006 @ 13:44 by Fini Alring
I came across an article that highlights some of the new consumer (toy) robots, and what is being done to improve their abilities and sales…
There’s one thing the so-called companion robots released by Sony, Honda and others have in common: they haven’t sold well.
Ugobe, however, hopes to change that next year with a cheaper, more versatile toy called the Pleo. Pleo is a robotic dinosaur coming in the second quarter of 2007 that reacts “emotionally” to its surroundings.
If you talk to it in a coo, it becomes more responsive, wagging its tail and offering to shake hands. If you are curt, it can display signs of being depressed–its back slumps, it emits a mooing sound and its tail drags plaintively. It can express joy and aggression. It can also yawn, sigh, sniff, sniffle, snore, cough, hiccup and sneeze.
A camera in the robot’s nostrils lets it “see,” and multiple sensors under its feet and skin can respond to touch. While it won’t recognize spoken commands, it will recognize tones and react to what it senses in them.
“You can consider it more of a lifelike creature than a toy,” Ugobe CEO Bob Christopher said during an interview at CNET’s San Francisco headquarters. “We’re kind of putting psychology back into robots.”
