in these studies is the lack of a
platform that can express emotions
and intent while providing a rich
array of sensory interactions. We
have been providing a small number
of Pleos (our robotic dinosaur) to
universities for use in these studies.
This exciting work at UC Berkeley,
Georgia Tech, MIT Media Lab, and
other institutions will help our larger
robotics community to better
understand how robots and humans
can interact.
An interesting thought to
ponder is that, for most of human
time, animals were the primary
non-human “robotic technology.”
Humans have developed a special
working relationship with many
animals such as horses and dogs.
The easy and robust interaction
between a human and a service
animal is strikingly different from
the typical human-computer
interaction. Much of our technology
interface design is centered around
telling our technology exactly what
to do and how to do it in the
current specific situation. Yet our
interface with a horse or dog is
mostly about executing against a
shared understanding of what
each will do in a wide variety of
situations. Typically, commands only
need to occur when there is an
exception to the expected action.
Often, complex behaviors can be
invoked with motions as subtle as a
nod. What does this suggest for the
future of human-robot interaction?
the thing to keep kids engaged as
they cross the “middle school divide”
where so many shy away from
technology studies.
Our Place
Robotics at this moment in time
is incredibly exciting and diverse.
We have the chance to bring our
creations to “life” in the real world.
They must cope with all the richness
and complexity of our messy world.
We can create their personalities
and give them autonomy. They can
sense beyond the range of human
perception and communicate
across the world. And all the while
we have the opportunity to work
in this renaissance environment,
frantically grabbing ideas from
dozens of fields. Each day we are
learning things that, in any other
job, we’d rarely discover. For me,
and I hope for you, this is the
greatest playground of all! SV
Education
An important challenge that
we face today is providing an
interesting space to encourage
kids to pursue technical and
engineering studies. Robotics has
helped with programs such as
FIRST and BEST. Yet there are a lot
of technically savvy kids who are
not interested in the construction
and competition aspects. As the
robotics community expands to
encompass more character-based
robots, there is a new opportunity
to pull kids in with performance
art and synthetic personalities.
These opportunities may be just
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