Summary
In a nursery school in California, there is a robot named Qrio that actually plays with children up to two years of age. This robot was designed by Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratories Inc. in order to see how a robot can be accepted by humans and live in harmony with them.
The children at the nursery school were initially unsure what to make of the robot, but they now accept it as one of their own, often dancing with it and even helping it to get up when it falls down. Researchers are hoping to continue the experiment for more than six months in order to collect all the necessary data.
Original source:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15162813%255E29677,00.html
Details
A ROBOT developed by a Sony subsidiary has been attending a nursery school in California since March to play with children up to 2 years of age.
The experiment is hoped to help develop a robot that can "live in harmony with humans in the future".
Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratories Inc's Qrio robot spends time each day with more than 10 toddlers at the nursery school located in San Diego.
The project is being conducted in collaboration with the University of California.
"We want to continue (the experiment) more than six months to collect data," Sony Intelligence researcher Fumihide Tanaka said.
The company gained approval from all the parents of Qrio's classmates prior to the start of the project.
Qrio is always accompanied by a researcher, who is in charge of making sure everything goes smoothly.
"It seems (the children) think of (Qrio) as a feeble younger brother," Tanaka said.
Based on observations over the past month, Tanaka said he believes a robot needs to have two contradictory functions to be able to live in harmony with humans - one for making "timely responses to human approaches" and the other for showing "unexpected, accidental moves".
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Wednesday, May 11, 2005
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