Friends,

A colleague just sent me an article that may be interesing to those 
who work with design and emotion.

Ken

--

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6389105.stm


Emotion robots learn from people
iRobot
Movie I Robot depicted emotionally complex machines
Making robots that interact with people emotionally is the goal of a 
European project led by British scientists.

Feelix Growing is a research project involving six countries, and 25 
roboticists, developmental psychologists and neuroscientists.

Co-ordinator Dr Lola Canamero said the aim was to build robots that 
"learn from humans and respond in a socially and emotionally 
appropriate manner".

The 2.3m euros scheme will last for three years.

"The human emotional world is very complex but we respond to simple 
cues, things we don't notice or we don't pay attention to, such as 
how someone moves," said Dr Canamero, who is based at the University 
of Hertfordshire.

Sensory input

The project involves building a series of robots that can take 
sensory input from the humans they are interacting with and then 
adapt their behaviour accordingly.

The robots exhibit imprinted behaviour - following the 'mother around'

Dr Canamero likens the robots to babies that learn their behaviour 
from the patterns of movement and emotional state of the world around 
them.

The robots themselves are simple machines - and in some cases they 
are off-the-shelf machines. The most interesting aspect of the 
project is the software.

Dr Canamero said: "We will use very simple robots as the hardware, 
and for some of the machines we will build expressive heads ourselves.

"We are most interested in programming and developing behavioural 
capabilities, particularly in social and emotional interactions with 
humans."

The robots will learn from the feedback they receive from humans.

"It's mostly behavioural and contact feedback.

"Tactile feedback and emotional feedback through positive 
reinforcement, such as kind words, nice behaviour or helping the 
robot do something if it is stuck."

The university's partners are building different robots focusing on 
different emotional interactions.

'Detect expressions'

The robots will get the feedback from simple vision cameras, audio, 
contact sensors, and sensors that can work out the distance between 
the machine and the humans.


We are focusing on emotions relevant to a baby robot that has to grow 
and help human with every day life

"One of the things we are going to use to detect expressions in faces 
and patterns in motion is a (artificial) neural network."

Artificial neural networks are being used because they are very 
useful for adapting to changing inputs - in this case detecting 
patterns in behaviour, voice, movement etc.

"Neural networks learn patterns from examples of observation," said 
Dr Canamero.

One of the areas the robots will be learning from is human movement.

"Motion tells you a lot about your emotional state.

"The physical proximity between human and robot, and the frequency of 
human contact - through those things we hope to detect the emotional 
states we need."

The robots will not be trying to detect emotional states such as 
disgust but rather will focus on states such as anger, happiness, 
loneliness; emotions which impact on how the robot should behave.

'Imprinted behaviour'

"It is very important to detect when the human user is angry and the 
robot has done something wrong or if the human is lonely and the 
robot needs to cheer him or her up.

"We are focusing on emotions relevant to a baby robot that has to 
grow and help human with every day life."

One of the first robots built in the project is exhibiting imprinted 
behaviour - which is found among birds and some mammals when born.

"They get attached to the first object they see when born.

"It is usually the mother and that's what makes them follow the mother around.

"We have a prototype of a robot that follows people around and can 
adapt to the way humans interact with it.

"It follows closer or further away depending on how the human feels about it."

Dr Canamero says robots that can adapt to people's behaviours are 
needed if the machines are to play a part in human society.

At the end of the project two robots will be built which integrate 
the different aspects of the machines being developed across Europe.

The other partners in this project are the Centre National de la 
Recherche Scientifique, Universite de Cergy Pontoise, Ecole 
Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, University of Portsmouth, 
Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, Greece, 
Entertainment Robotics, Denmark and SAS Aldebaran Robotics, France.