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WizKid Robot Debuts At New York Museum
ScienceDaily is reporting that a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is part computer, part robot, and part child. Part of the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibit "WizKid" is able to focus on human faces and follows your movement allowing you to interact with objects on its display simply by waving your arms. "Wizkid looks like a computer with a neck. But there the similarities with the familiar personal computer end. Wizkid isn't static. The screen on the mobile neck moves about like a head, and it's trained to hone in on human faces. Once it sees you, Wizkid focuses on you and follows your movement. Unlike a computer, which requires you to stop what you're doing and adapt your behavior and social interactions in order to use it, Wizkid blends into human space. There's no mouse and no keyboard. You don't touch anything. There's no language getting in the way. On Wizkid's screen you see yourself surrounded by a "halo" of interactive elements that you can simply select by waving your hands. If you move away or to one side, Wizkid adapts itself to you, not the other way around. If you're with a friend, Wizkid finds and tracks both of you and tries to figure out your relationship, expressing surprise, confusion or enjoyment when it gets your response."
...in Japan. The country where you can hire 'family' to visit yours.
The Mothership
Isn't there some principle in AI research that the more lifelike a thing is after a certain point, it no longer seems helpful and instead becomes disconcerting to the user? On the other hand, this isn't quite at the level of creepiness explored in Spielberg's film (sparked by Kubrick) Artificial Intelligence where the robot really does look and act like a real child.
The eye toy on the playstation had this type of UI already and it sucked as a menu interface, great for actually playing the games though.
Looks like someone took the robot from Short Circuit and gave it to Apple designers.
Seriously though, I seem to recall reading of various pursuits that do the exact same thing, albeit the use of a neck might be somewhat unique. I can recall reading of similar robots, with similar (if not loftier) design goals in publications like SciAm and CPU. This one seems like a glorified EyeToy, as in they seem to be interested in making this a CE device as opposed to perfecting or learning about human machine interaction.
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask where they're goin' and hook up with 'em later.
Once it sees you, Wizkid focuses on you and follows your movement. Unlike a computer, which requires you to stop what you're doing and adapt your behavior and social interactions in order to use it, Wizkid blends into human space.
So it REALLY is like having a kid
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
SkyNet!
"The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
I, for one, *dont* welcome our computerized, robot-children overlords. This scares the ever-loving crap outta me :-(
I, for one, am looking forward to the inevitable
I didn't RTFA or the summary (I did look at the picture), but I guarantee this will be forgotten after a month, only to reappear in some article 50 years from now titled "Wacky Inventions of the Early 21st Century"
Okay, this looked vastly different from the Frankenstein creation I was eagerly expecting.
Also, what the hell does "part computer, part robot, part child" even mean?
Is there part of a child in there? No, there is not.
In fact, all that's in there is a whole computer that mimics some of a child's behavior.
And what's all this bullshit about it not being a computer because it doesn't behave like a conventional desktop PC?
Is Science Daily always this fucktarded?
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
When it comes to actually using a computer for office productivity or other "useful" applications, traditional interfaces (keyboard/mouse) are much more efficient and less intrusive. I suppose for home multimedia applications, Microsoft's smart table idea has some merit, but who really wants a computer/robot following them around and pestering them? I don't get the appeal. I don't want my computer to use me or intrude into human interactions as if it were a guest. I want to use it as a tool.
I'm pretty sure I had one of these over fifteen years ago!
You have to supply your own child parts. Luckily, children are in vast abundance and are easily obtainable, often with little more than some inexpensive candy and a van.
like a honing pigeon.
(I can understand that some people don't listen to what they're saying, but it IS possible to check for stupidities before putting a web page up.)
Remember this is junk science reporting from Science Daily so don't take it too seriously. These are the same folk that tried to say that the "walks on water" robot works the same wy as a water strider - which it does not.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I got trashed with the missus on my birthday, and next thing you know, 9 months later we've got a WhizzKid of our own.
(True story.)
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
For those interested, YouTube has a video of WizKid's home media user interface in action. You can also see a video of the "emotional" expression movements.
Here.
I got trashed with the missus on my birthday, and next thing you know, 9 months later we've got a WhizzKid of our own.
... umm... thingy... 9 months ago wasn't actually "wiz", it was ... well.. another word that rhymes with it. ;-)
Umm... just ya know... that stuff that came out of your
Ouch!
... not even figurative senses of "hone" fit in this particular context.)
(I think they meant "home"
Sounds like a bad Futurama episode :)
Now I am sad.
A post about robots on /. and no "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag?!
and then the lead text won't use "it's" for the posessive as it means "it is". Maybe it can also avoid the egregious "hone in" given that "hone" is a transitive verb and I cannot see that "in" is a thing that needs sharpening.
Seems like this is just similar to Kismet & "Leonardo the Lovable", which have appeared on "Scientific American Frontiers", and various other TV shows..
wake me up when a lifelike animated paper clip serves to answer my queries regarding word processing in real time
I haven't seen any pictures, but the short circuit robot- johnny 5 alive - paints a hideous picture! I mean, just think about it! You're at home with your wife/"gf" and you get romantic. Do you really want this thing watching you? Wouldn't that freak you out if it has a "quizzical" or "curious/interested" face/expression?
What if it can eventually follow you around? When you come out of the bathroom after eating chili it's like, "what happened in there?" You know what i mean? I dunno if i'd want one of those bastards around me! Whatever happened to that japanese sony dog that was "like a real dog?" Can't i just get one of those instead, at least i can play with it and not get freaked out!
My abilities are only limited by my imagination
...well, I had to ask, because my reading and search of the article doesn't find a mention Linux, and I can't imagine something innovative like this running on Windows, especially when Microsoft is still struggling to nail down file copying Vista. So, just curious, you know.
It is drawn to human faces and if you move away it hunts you down and destroys you. Welcome the T1!