Date: February 26th, 2010

Humanoid Robots with Social Skills?

You don’t think the Robot Apocalypse is upon us, but we assure you, it is.

The HUMAVIPS project, which will span three years and hopefully result in robots being developed with “social skills,” may seem innocent — even beneficial — at first blush, but let’s think about it.

Will “humanoids with auditory and visual abilities in populated spaces” have more power than you, as an Earthling, would like? If all goes well, these robotic dudes and dudettes will be able to mimic what’s known as the “cocktail party effect,” which is better explained as “the human ability to focus attention on just one person in the midst of other people, voices and background noise.”

So yeah, this definitely goes two ways — on one hand, you could finally have a live-in robot that pays attention to your feelings as the world around you crumbles, but on the other, these guys won’t have any issue overlooking your wailing when it’s them bringing everything down. Yikes.

Related posts:

  1. Mind Reading Robots From Japan by 2020
  2. Lonely Japanese Elders Given Robot Teddy Bears for Company

Leave a Reply

Latest Releases

Top 10 Spy Gadgets You Can Own Right Now

Spies are everywhere these days, from the 10 Russian agents nabbed recently here ...

Etsy a Destination for Home Crafters to Market their Wares

Today we take a peek inside the offices of Etsy, the company behind ...

Want to Go Into Space? Comming Soon to a Launchpad Near You…

This is Boeing's new Crew Space Transportation-100 spacecraft. It is similar to Apollo's ...