Cynthia Brezeal: Robot Woman

[Jonfliesgoats]

Cynthia Brazeal is working on making robots more accessible to the masses at MIT.  Unlike what we see on popular trelevisiion programs, she is a nerd that is not in the least bit nerdy (a friend of mine refers to these well-adjusted people as submarinerds).  Her work in Robotics is impressive.  This video is a little bit old, but still interesting.

http://cynthiabreazeal.media.mit.edu/

[Vanamonde]

Jonfliesgoats, there was a big empty box in your post. I deleted it for you to make the thread easier to read. 

[Nibb31]

I don't really see the point in anthropomorphic robotics. We need machines that are efficient at specific task. In most cases, the human form-factor is suboptimal. Something like an industrial robot, Canadarm, or Curiosity are better suited for most tasks.

The only area where you might need anthrpomophism is when it comes to human interaction, but then it will be hard to avoid the "uncanny valley" effect that actually makes such robots counter-productive. It's probably better to actually steer clear from realistic humanoids with hundreds of "facial expression" servo-motors, and simply display an emoticon on an LCD panel or use a 3D model on a screen.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Nibb31

[hms_warrior]

5 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

I don't really see the point in anthropomorphic robotics....The only area where you might need anthrpomophism is when it comes to human interaction...

uhm basicly everything that is not happening in a factory or on a field is human-interaction. We just have, till now, limited our robots to those edge-cases.

[kerbiloid]

25 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

simply display an emoticon on an LCD panel or use a 3D model on a screen.

Spoiler

 

[benzman]

I have noticed that whenever the Japanese make an anthropomorphic robot it invariably looks like a teen-age schoolgirl.  Does anyone else find this mildly disturbing?

 

[kerbiloid]

10 hours ago, benzman said:

I have noticed that whenever the Japanese make an anthropomorphic robot it invariably looks like a teen-age schoolgirl.  Does anyone else find this mildly disturbing?

 

Probably, they oppose a teen-age schoolgirl to a full-minded human.