When people communicate, the way they move has as much to do with what they're saying as the words that come out of their mouths. But what about when robots communicate with people? How can robots use non-verbal communication to interact more naturally with humans? Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology found that when robots move in a more human-like fashion, with one movement leading into the next, that people can not only better recognize what the robot is doing, but they can also better mimic it themselves.
The research was presented March 7 at the Human-Robot Interaction conference in Lausanne, Switzerland.
"It's important to build robots that meet people's social expectations because we think that will make it easier for people to understand how to approach them and how to interact with them," said Andrea Thomaz, assistant professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech's College of Computing.
Thomaz, along with Ph.D. student Michael Gielniak, conducted a study in which they asked how easily people can recognize what a robot is doing by watching its movements.
"Robot motion is typically characterized by jerky movements, with a lot of stops and starts, unlike human movement which is more fluid and dynamic," said Gielniak. "We want humans to interact with robots just as they might interact with other humans, so that it's intuitive."
Using a series of human movements taken in a motion-capture lab, they programmed the robot, Simon, to perform the movements. They also optimized that motion to allow for more joints to move at the same time and for the movements to flow into each other in an attempt to be more human-like. They asked their human subjects to watch Simon and identify the movements he made.
"When the motion was more human-like, human beings were able to watch the motion and perceive what the robot was doing more easily," said Gielniak.
In addition, they tested the algorithm they used to create the optimized motion by asking humans to perform the movements they saw Simon making. The thinking was that if the movement created by the algorithm was indeed more human-like, then the subjects should have an easier time mimicking it. Turns out they did.
"We found that this optimization we do to create more life-like motion allows people to identify the motion more easily and mimic it more exactly," said Thomaz.
The research that Thomaz and Gielniak are doing is part of a theme in getting robots to move more like humans move. In future work, the pair plan on looking at how to get Simon to perform the same movements in various ways.
"So, instead of having the robot move the exact same way every single time you want the robot to perform a similar action like waving, you always want to see a different wave so that people forget that this is a robot they're interacting with," said Gielniak.
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Georgia Institute of Technology.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHmWtnqkObg&feature=player_detailpage
The English-Teaching Robot
The other Korean item that made in the Times list is the English-Teaching Robot nick-named “Mero,” developed by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).
The robots can move in any direction and can follow human facial expression!s. They are not only effective teachers, but the students also enjoy interacting with their new, fun, and cool school “staff.”
While the robots are used primarily in support roles for real human teachers, the Time Magazine called them a “job terminator,” saying they could potentially replace the native speakers currently employed in Korean schools.
Although there remain issues of economic feasibility as well as ethics, both inventions indicate excellent capacity of Korean universities as future leaders of world science and technology.
Teacher Robots
In an effort to move the American education system into the 21st century, some school districts have recently started hiring robots as teachers. They are programmed to do everything that human teachers can do, however they can also shoot lazers out of their eyes. Look at this one. She teaches little kids in Orange shirts
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If Korean children start speaking like robots in the future, it is the result of being taught by teachers who are instructing them from far distances via robot. Foreign English teachers are less willing to relocate to rural or isolated areas which prompted Korean schools to look for other ways to meet the growing demand of teachers.
The robot, named Engkey, will be controlled by the instructor so children will hear a human voice. It is able to roll around the classroom and also break out in song and dance in order to effectively teach while keeping the attention of young children.
Although the interaction is fairly good, it cannot be as effective as a human instructor at this time. However the Korean Institute of Science and Technology, the organization that developed the 'bot, aspires to create one that can mimic an English instructor; as a result, giving children the same experience they would have with a human teacher.
Daegu, a city that is a part of this 'teacher' transition, currently possesses 29 robots which it has distributed to 19 of its elementary schools. The goal for the nation of Korea is to introduce approximately 300 times the current amount by 2013.Schools intend to use these robots for after-school programs as the robots are not able to handle large quantities of children at a single time. Due to the popularity of after-school programs, it is likely that all students will have some exposure to these robotic teachers.
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