LivingCreatures- The Beginning Of 'I, Robot?'

An Anonymous Reader writes "LivingCreatures.com has released several new photos of the humanoid robot platform that it developed for the USC Interaction Lab. The yet to be named robot is about the same size as an 18-month-old child and will serve as a human-robot interaction (HRI) testbed for studies involving imitation, learning, and the effects that interaction with humanoid robots has on children."

Comments

Housemaid Robots

[superpulpsicle]

If they can figure out how to build an affordable robot that's smart enough and capable of cleaning any house effectively, it'll send the robotics industry to new heights. Until then, all these research are a sleeper.

Re:Housemaid Robots

[Lispy]

This might sound harsh but a human maid would be so much cheaper that I could employ him/her for many years while giving him/her work.

Re:Housemaid Robots

[pyce]

Nonsense! If the robot can perform the task more efficiently then it will eventually become cheaper. That's basic economics.

"I could employ him/her for many years while giving him/her work."

This is the same as saying that open source kills jobs.

Re:Housemaid Robots

[silas_moeckel]

One human maid might be cheaper how about the 4 needed for 24/7 staffing without ovetime? What if the robot could do other things like say drive your car? Perform maitnence around the house? What happens when there are hacks for the robot so it gets new abilities added free? What happens when the robots become 1/10 as expensive does your math still work out? Humans cost more and more to employ technology becomes cheaper and cheaper. Granted there might be usefull sociatal things that employing a human over a robot, but I for one dont think there are people not capable of something better than menial labor unless they are handicapt, so find something better for them to do.

Humanoid Robots

[The_Mystic_For_Real]

I'm not convinced of the usefulness of humanoid robots, except for providing disabled humans with prothetic limbs and maybe organs eventually.

It would seem more useful to build robots that are designed with the task they must perform in mind. Therefore, they could perform it far better than any human.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[bersl2]

It would seem more useful to build robots that are designed with the task they must perform in mind. Therefore, they could perform it far better than any human.

What if their task is human relations? Granted the AI to support such a task is a long way off, but the humanoid form would surely fit the function there.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[toetagger1]

Ah, that's why they are humaniod! In today's world, everything we design, we design for humans. Doorhandls, Cars, Switches, Dishwashers, Phones, Pens, Steps, Ladders, ... all designed for humans. If you want ONE robot to use all the things that allready exist, then that robot will look very similar to us.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[Anonymous Coward]

Hence C3PO's form: he was a diplomatic translator droid. R2D2 was, in contrast, designed to fix spaceships designed to be fixed by R2 units...

The later star wars sucked, but that was one of the really insightful things in the first movies.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[QuantumFTL]

I'm not convinced of the usefulness of humanoid robots, except for providing disabled humans with prothetic limbs and maybe organs eventually.It would seem more useful to build robots that are designed with the task they must perform in mind. Therefore, they could perform it far better than any human.

There are in fact *many* advantages to humanoid style robots. Thusly enumerated, they are:

• Our world and its technologies are currently optimized for human usage. Doors, sidewalks, cars, sinks, tools, etc are all designed specifically to be used by a humanoid. That's not to say that we cannot design new things for use by robots, however it may simply be easier to get robots to adapt to our world rather than vice versa.
• Most people do not like interacting with machines. Human interaction is what we have evolved to be optimized for. Our brain has special structures for face tracking/recognition that are far faster than similar generalized systems in the brain. Many people are uncomfortable with and intimidated by high technology, but would not be with friendly, humanlike robots.
• Many people are lonely. For the same reason that these people keep pets, having a humanoid robot would provide companionship. This is a bit dangerous however for elderly without relatives, or someone who's constantly travelling, this isn't such a bad idea.
• Humanoid robots, given enough intelligence and physical strength, could stand in for humans for a variety of activities, as needed. For instance, a restaurant low on staff may off robotic waiting at a reduced price (plus no need to tip!) during busy times for those who don't mind it. Also, through telepresence, you could use a humanoid robot as an "avatar" representing you physically rather than virtually at a remote location. It may even have your face, or one somewhat similar that mimics your expressions in real time. A bit scary, but so was television when it came out (you can *SEE* people in other cities, in your own living room!)
• Last but not least, there is the coolness factor. I think many people would find a humanoid robot to be much cooler than, say, a platform with some arms.

Yes, for industrial purposes, there's good reason to optimize the shape and form of a robot for specific tasks, however nature has provided us with an extremely adaptable physique, and we have so many reasons to emulate it.

Cheers,
Justin

Here at a JPL, a group that shares our workspace recently got AIBOs, and I was shocked to find myself treating it just like a real dog, and enjoying petting it. It's.... just a machine, I know, but it acts a lot like a dog.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[FleaPlus]

> Most people do not like interacting with machines. Human interaction is what we have evolved to be optimized for. Our brain has special structures for face tracking/recognition that are far faster than similar generalized systems in the brain. Many people are uncomfortable with and intimidated by high technology, but would not be with friendly, humanlike robots.

You have to be careful about the Uncanny Valley, though, at least according to a particular Japanese roboticist. Apparently once you get within a certain closeness of anthropomorphism, small things which aren't "quite right" can really freak people out.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[The Evil Couch]

get a robot to look atonishingly human, but noooooot quite, and it'll wind up looking like a fresh corpse; very human, but not lifelike. that's not exactly comforting.

approximating would be fine by me, though. I think I'd actually prefer one with chromed metal, anyways.

Robotic capability is accelerating

[Saeger]

There's a crossover point for each kind of job where robotic labor outperforms human labor in terms of efficiency and cost. Soon to be out of the job are millions of burger flippers, truckers, pilots, and others, who suddenly find themselves technologically unemployed (and waiting for the economy to suddenly 'create' millions of new jobs that can be better filled by humans - yeah right).

This automation trend will continue to accelerate, but what *could* be a paradise is increasingly looking like a corporate dystopia because the productivity gains, even today, are being hoarded by the wealthy few at the highest rate in history.

When welfare/livingwage is still a dirty word, stuff like this isn't funny: "Go away or I will replace you with a very small shell script."

--

Re:Antimatter thoughts

[ArsonPerBuilding]

Asimov was always light on explainations of the science behind his fiction. That being said, the positronic brain was just a plot device. It was made of layers of platinum and irridium and was the part of a robot that gave it the spark of life.

Asimov started writing his robot stories sohrtly after positrons were discovered, and the best I can speculate is that he choose "positronic brain" to make it sound neat. People that kept up with modern science were in on the joke and casual sci-fi readers had a cool word.

Re:one question about functionality

[owlstead]

Does an 18 month old child (baby) get beer from the fridge? No? Well, that's got that covered :)

Re:The economic effects of humanoid Robots.

[owlstead]

Nope, that's not likely to happen. Most likely there will be a few people that control the robots and live prosperous, while the other 95% is dying because of malnutrition (no job, no money etc).

It does scare me a bit I must admit. I can think of a lot of jobs in our company that are already within reach of this robots capabilities...

Remember Ananova?

[Animats]

This business of "faking emotions" is what robotics people do after they've failed to deal with the physical world. It gets great press, but doesn't do much. Cog at MIT is the most noteable example.

If you want to see fake talking heads, try Ananova video reports.

The Honda walking robot, though, is for real. They have a clue.

gee, anthropomorphize much?

[jd142]

It is interesting to note that the facial expressions are not changed from picture to picture, but the robot appears to be displaying quite different emotions.

Um, no. I didn't see any difference in the face at all in the pictures. The only slight difference I noticed was in the last one where the lighting was better and I could see the full eyes. I hope the science that comes out of this is objective and useful.

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Uncanny Valley

[jnicholson]

The theory has some resonance for me. I'm remembering my reaction to the Final Fantasy movie vs my reaction to something like Toy Story or Shrek, or something that isn't animated.

Final Fantasy was closer to realistic animation than Shrek was, but I was more comfortable watching Shrek. Every so often, the Final Fantasy animation would slap me around the face with something that jarred, whereas I had dropped that kind of expectation while watching Shrek.

Animation isn't the same as a realistic robot, but I think the principle may carry over into anything artifical posing as something real - the closer it gets, the more consistent it must be, or it just looks wrong.