emotions
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Nintendo's Wii: a marriage saver?
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]
Mannerisms in Hotel Dusk and other games
The New Gamer might not have enjoyed their stay at Hotel Dusk: Room 215, but they appreciate the work put into creating its memorable characters. Adding onto the unique visual style, each individual has a rich set of expressions and postures to communicate with. When one of the hotel guests describes a mannerism of the game's protagonist, you know exactly what he means by "that serious look in [Kyle's] eyes." Sonic's toe-tapping idle animation and King Hippo's falling shorts were also cited as great examples of unforgettable character details. Simple idiosyncrasies like that stay with you long after you've finished playing a game. What unique traits have you seen give a collection of pixels an identity? Was it Midna's sigh? Or Dry Bones' skeletal chuckle as he passed you in Mario Kart DS?
Researchers teaching robots to read emotional cues, sense our fear
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
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.]
SHOJI to detect the mood of a room for about $3,000
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.
