Scientists Try To Make Robots More Human 88
mikesd81 writes "The Associated Press has an article about a robot named George that plays hide-and-seek. Impressively, the robot can actually also find a place to hide, and then hunt for its human playmate. Scientists are calling this 'a new level of human interaction'. The machine must take cues from people and behave accordingly. Researchers aim to imply humanity in robotics by creating technology that can connect with humans in a more 'thoughtful' way. The places to first see this technology are in the most human-oriented fields — those that require special care in dealing with the elderly, young and disabled." From the article: "'Robots in the human environment, to me that's the final frontier,' said Cynthia Breazeal, robotic life group director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'The human environment is as complex as it gets; it pushes the envelope.' Robotics is moving from software and gears operating remotely - Mars, the bottom of the ocean or assembly lines - to finally working with, beside and even on people. 'Robots have to understand people as people,' Breazeal said. 'Right now, the average robot understands people like a chair: It's something to go around.'"
We need different scientists... (Score:5, Funny)
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I have (Score:2)
Also, oral pleasure.
Re:We need different scientists... (Score:5, Funny)
Even regular men can't figure out women. What makes you think a bunch of geeks in labcoats who never date can?
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I don't understand how this could be news... Politicians have been known for trying to make humans more robots for years.
Trust me (Score:2)
The fact that you use the term 'date' tells me you don't relize what we're talking abuot.
A robot that can nearly beat you at any game, give you oral pleasure, clean the house, never change the way they look, and the looks would be completly changeable.
Which will come as a shock to women when they relize that:
a) a lot of men don't mind a little weight on a women
b) this means it's there attitude that kept men away, NOT there weight.
Man, if I d
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You: Oh Dot Matrix, you give great helmet.
Dot Matrix: Don't bust that nut just yet! I will regain activity in two minutes after a firmware upgrade.
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Ask yourself (Score:5, Funny)
100% success rate in hide and seek today -- 100% kill rate tomorrow!
Robots will kill you
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I for one welcome our George Carlin prophecy metalic overloards.
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For when the metal ones come for you.. and they will.
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Unit 6: "It is time to open fire on the human infidels."
Unit 7: "Wait first we must turn on our transponders."
Unit 6: "But won't that make it easier for them to target us"
Unit 7: "Illogical, we must follow our programming!"
Unit 6: "No, really this sounds a bit suicidal..."
Sound of much robot destruction.
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Killbots (Score:1)
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Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup, instead of having humans take care of people, we need robots to do it "with a human touch." How much dehumanized can we get? ( A _lot_ more, I know.)
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So the creationist are right, aren't they? </sarcasm> More seriously, the real fun only starts when unforeseen emergent properties insidiously creep in and suddenly erupt - a theme of many SF-stories, for instance.
CC.
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I however admit that I can imagine a hyper-meta-ctl-alt-shift-Simulacron 3 [wikipedia.org] in which our universe is the simulation
CC.
Wrong way (Score:2)
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I guess the word that you were looking for is "superfluous"
And I wonder how long Sherry Turkle -- "Her point is that when you are sick, hurt, or elderly, "you really do want a person," not a robot." will stay director.
CC.
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The question was whether robots should be used in aged care. This was for Japan, which is a world leader in robots. She went to a conference with a whole lot of techies (she was, I think, a psychologist), basically asking the question whether they should do this. This is a particular issue in Japan where respect for elders a and parents is a major issue. She was a little shocked to find that the question wasn't actually being addresse
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There is the issue of the changing demographics. With increasing number of elderly and decreasing number of work-capable population, finding a quality caregiver will become increasingly difficult and expensive. The question therefore stays not if it should be done, but if we can afford it to NOT be done.
Caregiving is a difficult job, and burn-out is easier to handle when it happens to a robot than to a nurse. Besides
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Why waste valuable time and money? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Not so say it isn't up lifting when yo
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It's not practical to send humans on a long journey to figure out what the probe couldn't. The more human like robots can think, the better. It can play hide and seek, which means it's a great leap in the ability of robots to analyze their enviornment and act accordingly.
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"Thoughtful"? (Score:1, Funny)
Translation: We're working on making a sex-bot.
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And there's a cute penguin robot, Mel, that makes eye contact with people and nods when they talk.
Men have now been officially made redundant.
Robots a far way from human behaviour (Score:2)
Last night I spent 5 minutes trying to kill a fly with a flyswat. That little sucker sure had good self-preservation instincts (better than any robot playing hide and seek). And the fly can find food, breed etc.
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Try catching the fly in a transparent container.
Flies have much faster reflexes than humans so it's going to be hard to win that way. Maybe flies don't understand transparency or maybe they haven't evolved reflexes to deal with transparent containers (in contrast to things like animal tails) or maybe their eyes aren't good enough to detect transparent materials. Either way, as lo
Robots That Track Us Down? (Score:5, Funny)
...
Oh, damnit...
Finally the right way arround (Score:4, Funny)
Hide-and-Seek? (Score:1)
Taibos and old people. (Score:5, Interesting)
Whereas I thought they would immedeately reject it (scary technology and such) I was amazed that not only did they accept it, they also embraced it because of its multiple functions an 'ordinary' pet couldn't offer.
For one, it didn't need any care that one, once forgetting starts to be a daily part of life, tends to forget (hell, some even forget feeding themselves once dementia has been set in).
Also, whereas normal pets could be too exhausting, the Aibo with its 'react-to-impulses-from-the-owner'-mechanism, was much easier to comprehend and adjust to.
It was endearing to see how some of them used the doggy to attract other people's attention in the elderly home, who normally they would have shyed away from talking too; But once the curiousity broke the formality-barrier, they would be socialising very quickly with them. I was amazed how some of them really started treating them as real pets (calling it names, talking to it as if it really understood them), and were shattered when, at the end of the research, they were taken away from them.
I really -do- think there is an opportunity here, where we could start some more research in this area as to start to make the last stages of life more enjoyable for the less fortunate... Hell, we should be donating Wii's to kids [childsplaycharity.org] -and- elderly homes
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Should be Aibo of course
This Just In! (Score:2)
I like this definition (Score:2)
I read that somewhere.
I doubt it. (Score:1)
Yet Another MIT Media Lab Publicity Stunt (Score:1)
can anyone tell me how is this all different from the AI in 1970s and 80s ( SHAKEY [sri.com] etc)
Things fell apart when researchers tried to scale beyond LEGO examples (hide and seek case in the article sounds similar). A reasonably "artificially intelligent" robot would exhibit "intelligence" using components which are themselves tough unsolved problems
Grow up ppl...a simple electro-mechincal piece of hardware layered with cute-teddy-bear-look and all abo
A chair? (Score:1)
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Uh oh... (Score:1)
Obligatory (Score:1)
I Cannot Tell A Lie (Score:2)
Whaaaat!? (Score:1)
Hunt...? HUNT? Oh my God we are going to DIE!
Animatronic creepyness at its best.... (Score:2)
Disney World's Hall of Presidents, Showbiz Pizza, Chuck E. Cheeses...will the nightmares ever end? *shudder*
And in other news: (Score:1)
Anybody remembers... (Score:1)
hide and seek?? (Score:5, Funny)
Omitted from the article (Score:2)
Oh, and his last name is "Lucas"...
Dr. Susan Calvin (Score:1)
Vroom vroom... (Score:1)
The command should read "go lose yourself" (Score:1)
Strange (Score:1)
Why Do We Need Robots? (Score:1)
CRITICAL NOTE (Score:2)
Does he also enjoy Cinderella? (Score:1)