ACM TechNews

Emotional Robots in the Spotlight

ICT Results (07/17/08)

Europe's Feelix Growing project believes people will be more willing to accept robots that are in tune with their emotions. Twenty-five specialists in robotics, adaptive systems, developmental and comparative psychology, neuroscience, and ethology hope to develop robots that are capable of learning how to respond to emotions people display, similar to the way small children learn from experience. They envision emotional robots backing away and appearing less threatening if someone appears fearful or shows he or she is in pain. Feelix Growing has developed special software that is capable of learning when a person is sad, happy, or angry, using data gathered from cameras and sensors. The artificial neural network is designed to pick up a person's facial expressions, voice, proximity, and other information. The researchers have used mostly off-the-shelf equipment to build simple robots. So far, the three-year project has demonstrated a robot that learns as it trails a researcher, similar to a young bear cub that follows its mother, and a robot face that can show different "emotions."

http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/id/89893

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