"Tweenbots" Test NYC Pedestrian-Robot Relations

MBCook recommends Kacie Kinzer's tweenbots page, which documents some of her experiments with small, anthropomorphized robots that need help. Kinzer is writing a thesis (at the Center for the Recently Possible) centered around investigating whether people in New York City will help a cute little robot to get where it's going. "Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal."

Comments

Cute robot

[Alarindris]

I wonder what would happen if he had a frowny face? Or changing the wording on the flag to be less helpless or even rude?

I've always wondered if I took a postcard, wrote someone's name and city to be delivered to, and gave it to a random person. Would it ever get there? I'm going to try it tonight.

Re:Cute robot

[orangepeel]

Your post reminds me a little of the "Postal Experiments" that I remember reading about amongst some comments here on Slashdot nearly 10 years ago:

We sent a variety of unpackaged items to U.S. destinations, appropriately stamped for weight and size, as well as a few items packaged as noted. We sent items that loosely fit into the following general categories: valuable, sentimental, unwieldy, pointless, potentially suspicious, and disgusting.

It's tough to say what my personal favorite was, but I think the helium-filled balloon at least deserves special mention. :-)

Re:Cute robot

[harry666t]

I was on a walk today. I bought a notebook and a pen, and I spent time writing anonymous, open letters or drawing things whenever I had to wait for the traffic lights to change. When I was heading back home, I began giving some of those letters and drawings to random people on the street. Some people were surprised, some didn't want to take the piece of paper (maybe thought it was just a flyer). I think I'm going to do that again.

Re:Cute robot

[u38cg]

P.G. Wodehouse (author of the Jeeves novels, amongst other things) used to write his letters, stamp and address them, and then throw them out the window on the pavement. His theory was that anyone finding such a letter would simply pop it in the nearest post-box; which apparently, they did. He claimed never to have lost a letter this way.

Would it work elsewhere?

[rduke15]

In New York (some 20 years ago) I was surprised by how nice and helpful the people are in the street. If I just pulled out a map to have a look at it, people would stop and ask if they could help me.

I doubt these robots would survive and reach their destinations in Paris, for example. But it would be interesting to try. I may be wrong.

(I live neither in Paris nor in NY, and am neither French nor American)

Re:Would it work elsewhere?

[moosesocks]

Both Parisians and New Yorkers get a bad rap. In my experience, as long as you accept a few cultural norms, the residents of both cities tend to be gracious and helpful.

Firstly, you've got to understand that people in a city as large and dense as New York are going to appear somewhat impersonal at times...otherwise you'd collapse from sensory overload. However, beneath this facade, Similarly, for whatever reason, time on the subway is considered "private time," and it's generally frowned upon to talk loudly or make eye contact with strangers, etc. Perhaps an anthropologist or sociologist could chime in and suggest why this might be?

New Yorkers, in my opinion, tend to be some of the most gracious and sympathetic city-dwellers I know of. Of course, traditions and dispositions tend to vary tremendously from borough to borough. I've been living in the south for the past few years, and have found "Southern Hospitality" to be largely a myth, apart from the initial friendly facade that people tend to put on -- at the very least, the northeast doesn't deserve the rap it gets from the rest of the country.

Paris is somewhat similar. Parisians have a reputation for being rude and unfriendly to outsiders. I've visited the city three times, and have never observed this to be the case. I only speak a tiny bit of French, though this seems to be greatly appreciated. I could imagine being treated rudely if I didn't know any of the language (and rightfully so).

In fact, there are very few cities I've visited that I've found to be outwardly oppressive.

Re:Anyone else surprised...

[LordKaT]

As someone born and raised in NYC (I didn't spend most of my days on the playground, though), I can say I'm not surprised in the least.

This city is as "business minded" and conservative as it is "artsy" and liberal. Quite frankly, there's so much shit going on in this city on any given day that things like this just don't seem like anything important.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I've managed to walk through the middle of a TV show or movie taping simply because I was walking to the subway, or how many unique pieces of art I've actually stepped on (because they were built into the sidewalk) - all of which were genius in their own right, and would be praised as such in any smaller city, but because of the overwhelming amount of stuff here, its artistic importance is significantly diminished.

Re:Anyone else surprised...

[harry666t]

It must be fun to live there. In my city (Bydgoszcz, Poland), the most interesting random thing I recently saw happening on a street was a bunch of cats sitting together with pidgeons:

http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs42/f/2009/059/f/1/freedom_by_harry666t.jpg

However, the only thing that actually keeps making my city less and less attractive to me, is that it's getting harder and harder for me to get lost in it. I just know it too good, and I like exploring new places, getting somewhat lost, turning a short, 3h walk into a "where am I and how the fuck do I get back home from here".