Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Museum Guide Preference - Lifelike Humanoid vs 'Cute' Companion?

If you had your choice between two robotic guides at the museum, would you choose the 'cute' little robot (cute defined using Disney methodology of 'large' eyes etc) or the humanoid, in this case Geminoid HI4 or Geminoid F?

Cute Robot:

Cute Robot






And the Geminoid:

Spectacular Humanoid



Although I have written in the past about my concerns with overly 'attractive' robots, I realize this may simply be an response to our fears of the non-robotic community thinking we are even a bit more 'odd' than we already are, but outside of that I am starting to warm up to them a bit...

On the other side, Disney was wildly successful with 'likable' characters all having certain outward similarities so there may not be a reason to reinvent the wheel on the design side.

Either way, we expect to see more and more of this in the near future.

UPDATE - 20140624 1215PM ET
This Just in from AFP!

"Japanese scientists on Tuesday unveiled what they said was the world's first news-reading android, eerily lifelike and possessing a sense of humour to match her perfect language skills. VIDEO Duration: 01:20"








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