Drunken Robot Animation Shows Why Robots Don’t Need Faces
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 30 of March , 2010 at 3:45 am
There’s one very easy way to keep a robot out of the Uncanny Valley: don’t give it a face. Take ASIMO, for example… It’s humanoid, but since it doesn’t have a face, it’s not creepy. The question, then, is how do you make a robot expressive without relying on facial expressions? This animation, from Masahiro Ushiyama, shows just exactly how that can be accomplished. It’s just an animation, of course, but real robots are also starting to use techniques like these to interact more effectively with humans. Remember PR2′s needy behavior?
Behavioral expressions don’t just offer non-creepy ways for robots to communicate with humans, they also make robots seem less robot-y, which will likely help them integrate better into environments where humans aren’t used to having robots.
Now, this is by no means an argument against robots having faces… For some things, faces are necessary. I simply think that there are disadvantages to robots with faces, and in many cases, those disadvantages would outweigh the advantages if the robots were able to effectively express themselves in other ways.
[ Masahiro Ushiyama ] VIA [ Robots Dreams ]
Comments (4)
Category: Androids,Uncanny Valley
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Comment by Wayne D.
Made Tuesday, 30 of March , 2010 at 11:16 am
The robot arms/assistants on Ironman are another example and they don’t even have a humanoid form.
Comment by teflon3d
Made Tuesday, 30 of March , 2010 at 2:34 pm
Good 12 principles ‘o animation helps just a bit too.
Comment by kc charger
Made Tuesday, 30 of March , 2010 at 7:44 pm
So amazing.. and cute! I love the robot!
Comment by John
Made Friday, 18 of June , 2010 at 7:16 am
Well the sooner the robots can look like people the better to me. I do not believe people are that put off by them.
