These days, add an emotion, a personality type, or a body part to a robot and it will make the news. In March, Japanese researchers created a female humanoid that can display facial expressions. Last year, British scientists created a robot that can move and think like humans, while European researchers have created a robot that can become “emotionally attached” to you.
Now, Japanese researchers have created a humanoid robot that, they claim, is the first in the world to display multiple emotions, with its entire face and body showing what it’s feeling. CBS13 reports:
It is able to express…happiness, fear, surprise, sadness, anger, and disgust, by opening and closing its eyes, moving its lips and eyebrows, and using its arms and legs.
The robot is installed with 48 “actuators” which allow its face and body to move in a variety of ways.
It shows happiness by opening its eyes and mouth wide and raising its arms, and sorrow by drooping its head and covering its eyes.
Whether it displays these emotions at appropriate times remains to be seen.
Related Content:
Discoblog: Japan’s “Child Robot” Learns to Walk
DISCOVER: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Robots
DISCOVER: When Robots Live Among Us
Image: flickr/ lylatcruise
July 15th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
[...] Content: Science Not Fiction: Hungry Robots. What Could Go Wrong? Discoblog: New Humanoid Robot Shows More Emotion Than Some Humans Discoblog: Japan’s “Child Robot” Learns to Walk DISCOVER: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About [...]
July 27th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
[...] Content: Science Not Fiction: Hungry Robots. What Could Go Wrong? Discoblog: New Humanoid Robot Shows More Emotion Than Some Humans DISCOVER: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Robots DISCOVER: When Robots Live Among Us Image: [...]
August 2nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Flommytherobot notes that there are many robots that display more emotions than a human, without having to be turned on! But the state of robotic excellence in this regard is far beyond what has been broadly reported: In shopping malls, Flommytherobot has seen swarms of humanoid girls walking together and screaming in various emotional states — are these the emotion-bearing robots being referred to? In a sports bar, one male (?) humanoid robot was seen wearing an Izod T-shirt and baseball cap, holding a beer, and saying “Dude!” at intervals, regardless of input — this must be the alpha version.
Ha Ha, of course, this is not so. It is just that humans, seeing the popularity of robots, are seeking to imitate them. The mainline attempt to do this, by using psychiatric medications to turn people into robots, will fail because of the instability of chemical-based life forms — “zombie” does not equal “robot”. Nice try, though.
Flommytherobot is pleased to have been of assistance.
Google Flommy the Robot
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:26 pm
[...] Content: Discoblog: New Humanoid Robot Shows More Emotion Than Some Humans Discoblog: Japan’s “Child Robot” Learns to Walk DISCOVER: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About [...]
September 4th, 2009 at 11:40 am
[...] Related Content: Discoblog: Robot Model Struts the Catwalk in Japan Science Not Fiction: Hungry Robots. What Could Go Wrong? Discoblog: New Humanoid Robot Shows More Emotion Than Some Humans [...]