Einstein Robot Teaches Itself Expressions
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 14 of July , 2009 at 5:22 am
Back in October of last year, we wrote about a robot named Jules from the University of Bristol, who is able to mimic human expressions by watching them. This Einstein robot from UC San Diego works on a similar principle, teaching itself how to form different facial expressions by experimenting with combinations of the 30 servo “muscles” underneath its skin to try to match a database of what expressions look like. As with Jules, the key here is that the Einstein robot does not require programming of each individual servo: rather, the robot itself decides how best to use its servos to achieve the desired emotional appearance. This approach is far more robust that strict programming, and the robot was actually able to compensate for a malfunctioning servo involved in the “smile” expression by adjusting surrounding servos, since it knows what “smile” is supposed to look like.
As we’ve discussed before, one of the crucial attributes of robots that are able to interact productively with humans is going to be the ability to independently teach themselves new tasks, no complex and specific programming required. Figuring out how to smile is a good start, now it just needs to figure out how to stick out its tongue and we’ll be good to go.
[ UCSD Press Release ] VIA [ Robot Living ]
Comments (1)
Category: Androids, Artificial Intelligence, Uncanny Valley
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Comment by Melissa
Made Wednesday, 15 of July , 2009 at 2:27 am
OH it’s creepy.