MeBot
The Personal Robotics Group at MIT is working on prototype of a telepresence robot that adds non-verbal social gestures to it’s communication ability. It can simulate hand gestures and head movement (such as nodding for “yes” or turning the head back and forth for “no”) that enhance the sense of interpersonal connection.
MeBot – [mit.edu]
Overview
The MeBot is a semi-autonomous robotic avatar that gives a person a richer way to interact remotely with an audience than is allowed with phone and video conferencing. The robot was designed with an emphasis on being able to convey the non-verbal channels of social communication. That is, it is able to communicate some body posture, a wide range of head movement and very expressive hand gestures. It takes advantage of the current advanced technology in wireless communications and the ever-expanding capabilities of mobile devices. MeBot is a push toward a future where remote presence can be achieved easily in a way that saves traveling time but still achieves the same experience as “being there”.
MIT Media Lab – Personal Robots Group – Projects – [mit.edu]
The Personal Robots Group focuses on developing the principles, techniques, and technologies for personal robots. Cynthia and her students have developed numerous robotic creatures ranging from robotic flower gardens, to embedding robotic technologies into familiar everyday artifacts (e.g., clothing, lamps, desktop computers), to creating highly expressive humanoids — including the well-known social robot, Leonardo. Ongoing research includes the development of socially intelligent robot partners that interact with humans in human-centric terms, work with humans as peers, and learn from people as an apprentice. Other projects have explored how HRI can be applied to enhance human behavior as applied to motor learning and cognitive performance. More recent work investigates the impact of long-term HRI applied to communication, quality of life, health, and educational goals. The ability of these robot systems to naturally interact, learn from, and effectively cooperate with people has been evaluated in numerous human subjects experiments, both inside the lab and in real-world environments.
Personal Robotics ~ MIT’s Cynthia Breazeal & Co – [maximizingprogress.org]
This week in our MIT Media Ventures class we hosted Professor Cynthia Breazeal who runs the Personal Robots group and co-directs the Center for Future Storytelling. Her vision is that friendly and personalized robots will invigorate and transform our lives…
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