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Ankis New Robot Has Artificial Emotional Intelligence (fastcompany.com)

harrymcc writes: Toymaker Anki, whose Cozmo robot has been a hit, has announced its next bot: Vector. Though it looks a lot like Cozmo, it packs far more computational power -- Cozmo relied on a phone app for smarts -- and utilizes deep-learning tech in the interest of giving Vector a subtler, more engaging personality. Over at Fast Company, Sean Captain has a deep dive into the software engineering that went into the effort. Vector is being powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 chip, and has cartoon eyes displayed on a 184 x 96-pixel screen. The robot actually scans its environment via a single 720p wide-angle camera mounted below the screen. "Cozmo springs to attention when you call its name, making twittering sounds, and lifting its bulldozer-like arms up and down," writes Captain. "If you ignore Cozmo, the bot gets more in your face, or makes loud, obnoxious snoring sounds."

While Vector can connect to the internet and display weather information, set timers, and speak answers to various questions, it's the social and visual intelligence that people may fall in love with the most. Vector is able to detect people and interact with them, even when faces aren't visible. Computer vision technical director Andrew Stein and his team "trained a convolutional neural network (CNN) -- a popular deep-learning AI technology that mimics the brains visual cortex," reports Captain. "Using the often blurry and distorted footage that Vector's camera captures as he moves around, Stein has been teaching the CNN to detect people from the back or the side, for instance, up to about 10 feet away."

11 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Genuine People Personalities! by Larsen+E+Whipsnade · · Score: 4, Funny

    How much for a robot that just shuts up and does what it's told?

    1. Re:Genuine People Personalities! by freeze128 · · Score: 2

      You pass butter.

    2. Re:Genuine People Personalities! by sheramil · · Score: 1

      Obligatory:

      https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/859/202/790.png

  2. Is it by Grand+Facade · · Score: 1

    Anatomically correct?

    --
    Rick B.
  3. Artificial psychopathy by godel_56 · · Score: 2

    It doesn't really know how you feel, but it knows how to fake it.

    1. Re:Artificial psychopathy by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      So it's basically a cat. Quickly learns how to manipulate it's subjects into worshipping it as a demigod but don't actually experience the emotions itself.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  4. Does anyone find it ironic... by psmoot · · Score: 1

    ...that a gaggle of emotionally infantile social misfits are making a robot with emotional intelligence? Quite possibly more than they have?

    (He writes, being an emotional infant who can't read people to save his life...)

  5. Emotional intelligence by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 1

    Well, it may have about as much emotional intelligence (AKA empathy) as say, Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, but that doesn't count as what most of us human beings, even young children, think of as empathy.

    --
    Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
  6. CNN? by Daralantan · · Score: 1

    Stein has been teaching the CNN to detect people from the back or the side, for instance, up to about 10 feet away.

    Wow, the news can finally find people that aren't looking directly at them from up close!

  7. Does it do the needful by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Vector is being powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon

    Was this article being written by one H-1B?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  8. Sounds like a boss by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    I used to work for!