Humanoid acts out your dreams, encourages insomnia

Forget controlling your dreams -- after all, isn't the idea of having a mechanical buddy act out whatever your off-kilter brain thought up last night much more appealing? In an interesting endeavor, Fernando Orellana and Brendan Burns have teamed up to design a humanoid that actually takes sophisticated dream interpretation results (garnered by analyzing data from a variety of sensors) and acts out whatever was going on in one's mind. Quite frankly, we're not even sure we'd like to remember some of those overnight journeys -- let alone see some bot play it back -- but if you glanced this headline and immediately crossed your fingers for a video, head on past the jump to get just that.

[Chris @ Feb 16th 2008 4:37PM]

I would love to see the robot furiously humping something during a sex-dream.

[Chris @ Feb 17th 2008 1:14AM]

I would also love to see the difference in motion between someone with a physical disability and someone without one. For instance, would the dreams of someone confined to a wheelchair still move the legs of this robot? for that matter, do those in wheelchairs dream that they are in wheelchairs? I would love to study more about that...

[BigD145 @ Feb 16th 2008 4:39PM]

I'd like to see these things with safeguards. You wouldn't want it to go around killing people, would you?

[ethana2 @ Feb 16th 2008 5:14PM]

The difference between I, Robot and the Bicentennial Man is availability of source code.

That's my kind of safeguard.

[tsathoggua @ Feb 17th 2008 12:46AM]

True; Sleepwalker by Megadeth comes to mind.

[Clark H. @ Feb 17th 2008 12:25AM]

It DOES have a leash...

[kevin @ Feb 17th 2008 8:38AM]

I don't know about you, but I don't think I've ever heard of a "sleepwalker killing spree."

[m @ Feb 17th 2008 1:05PM]

i have. here is one of many:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4362081.stm

some of these cases are no doubt created by defense teams, but people really are capable of punching their partners (and worse) during REM sleep. go ask google.

[Backlin @ Feb 16th 2008 4:40PM]

So that's how you like it, aye?

[Jherez @ Feb 16th 2008 4:57PM]

This is what the next Tickle Me Elmo will be like...

[George @ Feb 16th 2008 5:06PM]

With the music, I felt like I was watching a David Lynch dream sequence. All that was missing were midgets talking backwards....

[electronicat @ Feb 16th 2008 5:16PM]

I, for one, welcome our dream-interpreting robo....

Oh forget it.

[NeoteriX @ Feb 16th 2008 5:21PM]

So... the only two types of dreams this robot will be able to reproduce are the "I am flying!" and "I'm an awkward shambling zombie!" dreams?

[doobster @ Feb 16th 2008 5:30PM]

hmmm..... video would have been useful if it had commentary. the video was like a more sophisticated version of the robot dance video.

[Ryan Bateman @ Feb 16th 2008 7:58PM]

This thing is kind of useless. I mean, it's great that by some ambiguous process of interpretation they can translate my dreams into the way this robot moves, but what the hell does it mean? I assume the actions just directly correlate to the way my body is moving in my dream, but that's the boring part. The interesting part about dreams is all context. For example, you're flying in a dream. So then they robot positions itself as if it's flying. I don't really care about that. What I want to know is where am I flying? What do I see? How do I interact with objects in my dreams and what are they?

Anyways, I guess criticism shouldn't be so harsh because all this research has to start somewhere, but the robot seems kind of ridiculous.

[Simon @ Feb 16th 2008 7:52PM]

wet dream anyone?

[Zhalfim Deyn @ Feb 16th 2008 8:07PM]

so what would it do when I have that recurring nightmare I have of a robot strangling me...?

[Osiris @ Feb 16th 2008 9:12PM]

I don't get why they simulate it with a Robot when a computer model seems entirely more capable of communicating body language and movement.. also being unrestricted by slow mechanics etc..

[Yevon @ Feb 16th 2008 9:21PM]

The downside is this robot only plays DOOM in your dreams.

[whatishalo? @ Feb 16th 2008 10:04PM]

Come on, who really does things like fly in your dreams? Mine are oddball or every day crap like starting the snowblower (and pissing off my wife when my arm jerked and elbowed her) or throwing lemons at a totem pole.

[Sam Winter @ Feb 17th 2008 6:40PM]

need to soak some poppy heads..

[randompass @ Feb 16th 2008 10:11PM]

I dunno, I had a dream last night that megatron took over the earth. What if this thing transforms into a gun and does just that?
(or worse does in an interpretive dance of it)

[DarCowAlways @ Feb 16th 2008 11:28PM]

...at 4:32 AM the dream-interpeting robot became self-aware...

[chrisrem @ Feb 17th 2008 1:52AM]

I, for one, welcome our dream-powered overlords.

[bob @ Feb 17th 2008 3:07AM]

What I want to know...

If the robot goes into my closet, takes my rifle out, and goes around killing everyone it sees, night after night, until it runs out of ammo or gets destroyed by the cops...is it legally my fault, its fault, or guys who made it's fault?

[HeavnsGirl @ Feb 17th 2008 6:09AM]

Ridiculous.

[mikejonas @ Feb 17th 2008 12:04PM]

So basically my session with this robot would be like this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6qOuVfcoRmw

[DomoBraden @ Feb 17th 2008 5:17PM]

So...what happens if you have a lucid dream? Would you gain full control over the robot? Would the robot become self-aware, realize that it is a useless monstrosity, and proceed to dismantle itself?

[DomoBraden @ Feb 17th 2008 5:18PM]

So...what happens if you have a lucid dream? Would you gain full control over the robot? Would the robot become self-aware, realize that it is a useless monstrosity, and proceed to dismantle itself?

[michael morehouse @ Feb 18th 2008 2:09PM]

yep. ade lun sec-

[Michael @ Feb 18th 2008 2:51PM]

Who gives a shit what it means ...

It feel like I'm watching a robot on stage do some meditation while wishing he was hunting caribou on the plains of Africa.

[idiot @ Feb 18th 2008 2:58PM]

what's next? electric monks?