The personal attitude toward these artificial creatures and the very purpose of these is the study of the program entitled Living with robots and interactive companions (LIREC in ALARA), which have just jointly launch several European technology research centers.
The project aims to create a new generation of interactive, emotionally intelligent beings capable of establishing a long relationship with humans, both in a virtual world (on a computer screen), as in the real world (robots). LIREC, worth 8.5 million euros, is also the first program to examine how we react when a robot with which we have everyday familiarity in our field takes the form of a living-person, animal or other look-in computer screen, thus putting the face and eyes to what until now saw as an object.
The investigations are based on next-generation robots recently established with some of them establishing a relationship like that stays with pets.
One is Pleo, a dinosaur that is already marketed, designed to emulate the appearance and behavior of a puppy from a week old Camarasaurus. Each Pleo learns from its experiences and environment through a sophisticated artificial intelligence, and develops an individual personality. When he runs his hand over, for example, behaves as you would a puppy, moving the neck and tail.
GlowBots, the enlightened
Another interactive companion are GlowBots, robots the size of a glass that have wheels and lights of different colors. Develop complex relationships between them and their owners. They move differently, and their lights configured various ways when touched by someone or enter into communication with their peers.
The study will also conduct experiments with iCat, a duck-shaped toy that plays chess and whose behavior varies depending on the evolution of the game, Kaspar, a humanoid child-sized, and the calls peoplebots, little robots with human appearance but take some behaviors of men.
According to Professor Peter McOwan, University of London, the project LIREC is interested in how people can develop a long term relationship with artificial creatures. There may not be a robot to help us wash the dishes in the immediate future, but we hope to explore how this technology can be developed, and want to begin to predict how they will be intelligent machines of tomorrow.