Emotions -- Engadget

emotions posts

Mahru the robot dances to mask its emotional insecurities

by Samuel Axon posted Oct 13th 2008 at 3:04PM

We've enjoyed watching KIST's Hubo do crazy things like wear the face of Albert Einstein and ride a Segway, but we haven't given as much attention to its brother Mahru. Feeling left out, the biped learned to dance with its upper body whilst walking around -- an impressive feat, considering it wasn't all that long ago that scientists first managed to get these things to take five steps without falling flat on their faces. Mahru also releases scents to express its artificial emotions, so you should be able to smell something fishy when it achieves sentience and begins angrily plotting to destroy its creators. Take a gander at a South Korean TV news report after the break.

Continue reading Mahru the robot dances to mask its emotional insecurities

Heart Robot loves to be hugged, express emotions

by Darren Murph posted Jul 30th 2008 at 2:03PM

Here's your afternoon dose of cuteness, ready or not. David McGoran's Heart Robot has made its way into London's Science Museum, and for good reason. This intelligent robot not only possesses a face with moving eyes and an external heart that blinks depending on what's happening, but it actually encourages people to hug and cuddle it like a real human. Seen as being "among the first robots to signify a new era of emotional machines used for medical treatment and enjoyment," this creature could one day become a mainstay in nursing homes where the elderly could interact with it and hopefully benefit in some metaphysical manner. Check out the read link for a video oozing with adorableness.

[Via TimesOnline]

Pomi robot penguin shows its emotions with smells

by Donald Melanson posted Jun 13th 2008 at 4:21PM

We've seen plenty of robots that attempt to display emotions, but none quite like this Pomi penguin bot developed by Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, which can emit two unspecified smells in addition to employing some more common means of letting you know how it feels. Those other options include a "heart box" on its chest that changes its heartbeat based on its mood, and movable lips, eyebrows and pupils that'll let it make faces at you, along with the usual sensors to follow you around, and voice recognition to help it recite some pre-programmed answers. Unlike some other similar bots, however, this one is apparently going to actually be commercially available by the end of next month, although there's no word on a price tag just yet.

[Via The Raw Feed]

Study finds Roomba owners heart their vacuums, accept flaws

by Darren Murph posted Oct 1st 2007 at 11:04PM

While we greatly appreciate the research done by the fine folks over at Georgia Tech, we can't exactly say that we're shocked to hear that Roomba owners (in particular) actually care about their vacuums. In a study revolving around the intricacies in human-robot relationships, gurus found that "some Roomba owners became deeply attached to the robotic vacuums and that there was a measure of public readiness to accept additional robots in the house -- even flawed ones." Interestingly, the report goes on to state that consumers would be less likely to complain if troublesome / faulty household bots were "emotionally engaging," and considering that some folks were willing to "buy new rugs, pre-clean floors and purchase refrigerators with higher clearances" for their Roomba, we suppose we can't really argue with the findings. Now, robot manufacturers, don't you go ditching quality just 'cause we're pushovers, capiche?

[Image courtesy of Halo5]

Gadgets blamed for making the world a shier place

by Darren Murph posted Sep 2nd 2007 at 12:25PM

Though we certainly feel as if we've had this discussion before, gadgets are yet again being blamed for an increase in shyness around the world. 'Course, we doubt you'd need any fancy degree to understand the cause, but a Harvard Business School researcher and psychologist has insinuated that the ease of communicating in roundabout ways (read: not face-to-face) has caused an increase in the amount of people that feel shy in public. Essentially, it was suggested that "technology is enabling us to opt out of difficult situations and causing people to become more insular," but hey, it's hard to argue how much easier life is with a little texting mixed in, no?

[Via The Raw Feed, image courtesy of ABC]

Augmented reality relationship game plays with your emotions

by Darren Murph posted Jun 21st 2007 at 3:28AM

If you couldn't quite make it to the last Wii marriage counseling session, there's still good news coming from Georgia Tech. Thanks to a group of engineering minds at the university, a new augmented reality game (dubbed AR Facade) is placing you in the center of a marital spat with nearly limitless options. The program apparently runs on a back-worn laptop and utilizes an oh-so-tacky head mountable display, and developers suggest that being placed in the midst of an "interactive drama" allows you to choose sides, attempt to mediate, and basically "define your own way to win" as you try to talk some sense into the flustered couple. Interestingly, there's even talk of bringing such games "onto mobile phones" and into the workplace, but it looks like they've got a bit of hardware trimming to do first.

[Via The Raw Feed]

Kansei makes a comeback with reactive facial expressions

by Darren Murph posted Jun 6th 2007 at 8:14AM

Quite a lot has transpired in the android universe in the past two years, and it's fairly safe to say that Kansei has made a few solid strides during that time as well. A Japanese research team has purportedly crafted a working prototype that can "pull up to 36 different facial expressions based on a program which creates word associations from a self-updating online database of 500,000 keywords." According to a professor at Meiji University's School of Science and Technology, the idea of the project is to "create a flow of consciousness in robots so that they can make the relevant facial expressions," and the device relies on 19 movable parts and a silicon face mask in order to work its magic. Developers also noted that speech abilities should be added within a few years, and while we doubt you had to guess, it's quite likely that fully developed Kanseis will one day roam nursing homes as Japan seeks to care for its quickly growing geriatric set.

GlowBots develop relationships, express emotions via LEDs

by Darren Murph posted May 13th 2007 at 6:26AM

Although we can't deny that having a household humanoid that chases away intruders would be a welcome member to most families, a team of individuals more focused on actual "complex relationships" have developed a series of bots that can learn and express emotions via lights. GlowBots are wee wheeled creatures that "develop attractive patterns that are affected both by user interaction and communication between the robots," meaning that the days of expensive animal training in order to have a pet around are nearly through. The technology within is based on an open experimental robot platform, dubbed e-Puck, and the actual robots utilize "eight IR proximity sensors, a camera, a trio of microphones, three-axis accelerometer, a speaker, two stepper motors, Bluetooth interface, a number of LEDs, a PIC micro controller, and a 12-step-mode selector" to confess their love. The creators will apparently be showing off their heartwarming invention at this year's SIGGRAPH conference, but until these suckas come sheathed in some sort of faux fur and fully equipped with bad breath, we're afraid Fido will retain control of the dog house for now.

[Via PastaAndVinegar]

Nintendo's Wii: a marriage saver?

by Darren Murph posted May 13th 2007 at 12:29AM

It's fairly obvious that using the Wii to keep yourself slim and trim is bound to put a smile on your SO's face, but a curious banner at a presumed church used Nintendo's console (and its token font, too) to hint at answers to a successful marriage. Of course, a couple interested in spending countless hours of quality time gaming away with each other are indeed more likely to find common ground, but for the uber-competitive type, gaming together could lead to more quibbles than friendly laughs. Nevertheless, it shouldn't be surprising that a religious institution would tap into mainstream culture in order to garner attention to its offerings, and hey, if you've got to go to counseling for only taking "Mii" into consideration, you may as well get your game on while you're at it.

[Via NintendoWiiFanboy]

Researchers teaching robots to read emotional cues, sense our fear

by Evan Blass posted Feb 23rd 2007 at 2:02PM

Someday, after the uprising, when we're living in dungeons and toiling at the silicon mines, we'll look back with appreciation at the pioneering robotics work done by Dr. Lola Canamero and her colleagues. For you see it's Dr. Canamero and a European consortium of scientists known as Feelix Growing that are taking the preliminary steps towards endowing robots with the ability to read human emotions, and consequently, the ability to know that you're screaming out of pain instead of joy when they drag you from dungeon to mine and back again. Since the majority of this three-year project focuses around software development, the team is installing its learning algorithms in rather simple hardware, which its hoping to teach through a combination of code tweaks and direct feedback. To achieve the latter, the guinea bots are equipped with cameras, microphones, and tactile and distance sensors that let them see and hear their masters' reactions along with feeling the occasional newspaper swat to the head when they've been naughty. The learning itself is achieved through the use of artificial neural networks, which are well suited to the varied and changing inputs that the bots are exposed to; the ultimate goal is a robot capable of adapting its own behavior based on the emotional state of surrounding humans, particularly happiness, anger, and loneliness. There's no way we can stop the inevitable takeover, folks, but we can at least try to make sure that our future overlords understand that we don't like it when they grip us around the throat with those powerful hydraulic claws.

Ugobe readies Pleo for pre-order, kicks out feature spot

by Darren Murph posted Jan 30th 2007 at 10:56PM

Sure, you've probably seen way more Wowwee robot action in the past few weeks than you ever thought your retinas could stand, but since you persevered, why not give this not-exactly-related family member a few ticks of your time too? Ugobe's Pleo has been a long time coming, and while we've seen a small clip of the dino in action before, now the two-week old Camarasaurus has its very own advertising spot. The video showcases the wee creature's ability to "sense," feel emotions, walk, interact with its environment, and "learn" over time. Furthermore, it looks like the company's previous estimates of a March launch date could be on target after all, as the website now states that pre-order information will be available in four short days. So if you're even pondering picking up an intelligent pet from the Jurassic period that doesn't even need those uber-expensive booster shots, click on through for the marketing hoopla.

[Thanks, Eric C.]

Continue reading Ugobe readies Pleo for pre-order, kicks out feature spot

SHOJI to detect the mood of a room for about $3,000

by Cyrus Farivar posted Nov 8th 2006 at 5:33AM

If you're someone who can easily read other people's emotions, then you probably won't be getting a SHOJI (Symbiotic Hosting Online Jog Instrument) anytime soon. For the rest of us, we'll have to rely on this latest invention from our friends at the University of Tokyo and GS Yuasa. The SHOJI apparently can sense the "mood" of a room by monitoring light levels, temperature, humidity, infrared, ultrasonic waves, the "presence and movement of people," (not unlike that Mitsubishi air conditioner we saw recently) body temperature, and "the nature of activity in the room," whatever that is. All of that data is then compiled and computed to output to an LED flask sort of thing which displays red for anger, blue for sadness, yellow for happiness and green for peace. Apparently Japanese managers and hospitals are willing to pay a hefty price for this privilege, given that it'll cost between ¥300,000 and ¥400,000 ($2,500 to $3,300) when its released in April 2007. Still, the SHOJI is no KotoHana flower, that's for sure.