Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

MIT Scientists Create Robotic Sea Life

Posted by chrisd on from the robot-nigiri-please dept.

Junior Barns writes "This article on the BBC News site reports on the development of a robot that imitates primitive life forms. This project led by researchers from the robotic life group at the MIT media lab is intended to study how people will try to interact with and relate to an "alien" creature that seems organic but is not anthropomorphic. Let's just hope no one tries to kill and eat it."

7 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. The real link by unsinged+int · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here is a working link to the story. And a working BBC link.

  2. Access problems by K. · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you get 403s, try clearing your BBC cookies and going via the front page, answering yes to the are you from the uk question. Worked for me.

    I doubt it was slashdot wot done it too, more likely someone fucked up file or CMS permissions and hasn't noticed coz of said cookie being set to "yes" on all BBC boxes.

    --
    -- Proud descendant of semi-nomadic cattle-herders.
    1. Re:Access problems by fiiz · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's right.

      The "non-UK" version of the BBC has been down for a few hours, it's definitely not ben /.ed, there's a silly permissions problem.

      And, as you say, the "UK" version works fine.

      --

      yours ever, fz.
  3. Re:To robots, tires are like candy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    poor quote job: actual quotes

  4. Slightly Offtopic by Cyno01 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Has anyone seen that new show on the Discovery channel, Depth Charge. Its kinda like robot wars, except its under water, i've seen one episode, it was pretty cool, its a little bit slower paced than battle bots, but there seem to be less restrictions on weapons, bots last night had plasma cutting torches and bang sticks and other cool things.

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  5. Saw it at SIGGRAPH by mistermund · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Public Anemone was presented at SIGGRAPH '02 in San Antonio, about a month ago - that's where the pictures in the article were taken. The exhibit was in the Emerging Technologies area. I visited the exhibit almost daily (reactive robotics is an area of interest), and spent some time observing both the exhibit and people's reactions.

    The Media Lab students explained that it was an experiment in social interaction - but how people react with something that doesn't have a face, or a voice. In a way, it's easier to create a creature that doesn't have to synthesize speech, etc. At the same time, it's much more difficult to elicit a reaction from people when they can't interact the same way that they do with other humans.

    The Public Anemone had two main forms of reaction that I could make out - shrinking back from people who reached out toward it, and tracking faces. (With the assistance of dual stereo cameras in the back wall.) The exhibit was more like a terrarium than an aquarium (as the BBC article mentions), but the creature had a silicone skin which allowed it to play in the small pond and waterfall without shorting. During the day cycle, the anemone interacts with guests. During the night mode, the anemone goes to sleep and guests can interact with other fiber-optic anemones (that also shrink away) and drum on gemstones embedded in the surface of the exhibit. The exhibit certainly looked cool, with fiber optics, a soundtrack, and changing colored stones (using ColorKinetics lights), but the interaction left something to be desired. Almost all the people I observed in the exhibit did the typical museum "Oh, that's nice, let's look at it for a few minutes." Almost no-one tried to interact unless prompted to by the media lab representative that was standing there, describing what was going on. Nobody that I saw tried to play with the face tracking abilities of the robot.

    Cynthia Brazeal(the person in the second pic) is more commonly known for her work on Cog & Kismet. (Pic)

    IMHO, The coolest project in this area is Doc Beardsley, by the Entertainment Technology program at Carnegie Mellon. Here's an article at Discover Magazine. Interaction with Doc emphasizes fun over artificial intelligence.

    I have more pics of the Anemone from Siggraph. If anyone wants to post them somewhere where they can stand the slashdotting, send email to mistermund@yahoo.com

  6. Rod Brooks and the Toy Factory by Animats · · Score: 3, Informative
    This sort of thing has been seen before. Rod Brooks, head of the MIT AI Lab, has a side business making robot toys. Their success in the toy market has been rather limited.

    Their best known product is My Real Baby, manufactured by Hasbro around 1999-2000. It's basically a baby doll with Furby-type software. Rated "Worst Idea of the Year" by the Alliance for Childhood. It's not even that original; Baby Think it Over, the anti-teen-pregnancy doll from hell ("requires real care on the part of the student, including feeding, burping, rocking, and changing diapers"), has been around for years, but at a price well above the toy level.

    This whole direction is way too much like Eliza. Much of the AI field, having failed at tasks that actually require doing something successfully without human assistance, now seems to be focused more on faking it. You've all seen Ask Jeeves, and obnoxious "virtual customer support reps". Those are pathetic.

    There's some good work going on, but this isn't it.