And the Oscar Goes to.... Nexi, the Emotional Robot
"Nexi" has the legs of R2D2, the face of C-3PO and the emotional I.Q. of HAL 9000, and she is preparing for her debut at the Boston Museum of Science for the summer of 2009. You can catch a sneak peak of her at the MIT Personal Robots Group home page.
Nexi represents the current generation of MDS robotics. MDS stands for Mobile, Dexterous and Social. The Mobile refers to a two-wheel base, the Dexterous refers to arms that can pick up, grip and throw objects, and the Social refers to the head's ability to understand and express emotions. Nexi expresses emotion by combining movements of the eyebrows, head, eyelids and mouth. When she's excited, for example, Nexi will raise her eyebrows and open her eyelids and mouth. She can be sad, mad, bored, frightened.
The M.I.T. team collects data from interactions with human subjects and processes this information through a cognitive-affective software that enables the robot to learn from her environment. Nexi extracts lessons, which are added to a knowledge-corpus that informs how she reacts. A lot of interaction-reaction data has been collected through collaboration with the Boston Museum of Science, where Nexi regularly meets with large groups of toddlers in controlled environments.
MDS robotics is an amalgamation of key advances in mobility, dexterity and sociability, with an emphasis on the sociability. M.I.T. supplies the key ingredient for this kind of collaboration: the head and face. It is the hope of the M.I.T. group led by Cynthia Breazeal that Nexi will lead the way to more sophisticated human and robot interactions, providing assistance in areas like Eldercare, healthcare and education.
The project was originally conceived by the Office of Naval Research Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) so that intelligent robots could operate in uncertain, dangerous combat environments. However, Cynthia Breazeal and her crew at M.I.T. envision a more quotidian application, such as smiling and empathizing with residents at a nursing home, or playing with five year olds in a daycare facility.
Don't get your hopes up, Nexi will not be ready for the workforce for at least 5-10 years. If you are interested in purchasing a Nexi for the home, though she can actually be bought at Xitome (unfortunately, no price is listed, so you'll have to ask). She's a great roommate: You don't have to worry about her invading your privacy too much: Nexi can't read lips and only has a battery life of 45 minutes. [From Tech E Blog]
_thumbnail.jpg "Vintage Keyboards")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
neesee said 12:45PM on 11-13-2008
I don't think I want my robot 'mad' at me.
Reply