Ten years ago, I was one of many parents waiting in line for the first wave --
A generation of computers
Driving mechanical toys that can speak and provide basic responses for children who play with them.
Small creatures like aliens, they have their own charm.
They may also annoy you-a lot of the time-because they mysteriously wake up without warning and start who-Chat with me
That's why our family chose to quickly paralyze our little blue.
(By removing the battery ).
But I still like the original little robot.
This helps explain why I experienced more jealousy yesterday in the video of Leonardo, a social animal than a robot.
Cynthia Breazeal and her colleagues are working on robots developed by MIT.
Breazeal held the first World Science Festival at the City University of New York.
Her conference, the pioneer of science, offers six prescienthweigh-
Scientists and engineers at the school have the opportunity to meet and pick their brains with two famous and charismatic researchers.
One of them, Breazeal, answered questions from three students-two girls and one boy-who had been actively making robots themselves.
So some of their problems are quite technical, such as how you decide which sensors to use, or where are the major breakthroughs needed to provide the robot in the case of independence and problems --
Ability to solve R2D2 and C-3PO.
They were Star Wars idols, and when they were young they turned Breazeal into a robot for the first time.
What Breazeal really likes about Star Wars machines is their social skills, the ability to read people's emotions, and the ability to build social relationships with human masters.
This in turn affects her research, which shows the development of friendly robots.
She provided a video showing how robot sensors read the child's facial expressions and responded in a comforting way. One long-
The semester goal may be to make these mechanical computer systems, which are friendly and patient, an unbeatable teacher.
For example, they may educate preschool children in a foreign language and talk to them for the second time --language-of-
Children's Choice when playing robots on the living room floor. The teddy-bear-
Like Leonardo or his relatives, children can gently correct them if they use the wrong article or verb form.
Some of the best questions about Breazeal come from some of the younger audiences in particular.
A girl-maybe 7 or 8-asked: "Is there a robot that is smarter than us, or can do the same thing as us ? " Tell the unarmed child to grow up, do research, and report to the MIT team.
A boy around the age of 10 asks, what is the point of designing a robot, as Breazeal says, "walk into your living room ".
The boy admits how these things can be cool, but then asks them if they can only do what people have already done, is it really necessary for them?
"This is a good question," said MIT researchers . ".
She went on to explain that as people live longer and longer, the proportion of the elderly in society is increasing.
For example, it is predicted that they will soon account for 1 out of 3 of the country's population.
Unless Japan wants to shift the whole economy to caring for the elderly, its society-and many other Western economies-has found a way to a large extent, keep a large number of older people independent for as long and as low cost as possible.
Having an electronic pet that responds to these removal (with physical features-a smile, confusion, or surprise) based on the owner's voice and facial expression can greatly limit social isolationism.
Unlike real pets, Leonardo and his furry parrot can speak, they won't die if the owner forgets to feed them, and if the owner doesn't have the mobility to walk outdoors, they won't stain the carpet.
Breazeal said that these animals may also become pets for hospitalized children, as real animals may pose an allergic or hygienic risk to them.
Of course, an old man himself raised the question that surprised the audience: Do you think robots will eventually reach the social ability that humans will fall in love with them or have sex with them?
Rating questions were raised at the family forum with young children.
Both professionals, Breazeal responded: "There is a book: I will let you read it.