Robot to be your child’s best friend
The little robot on the table wakes up. Its eyes, a complex configuration of cyan dots on a black, rounded screen of a face, sleepily open and it lets out a digitised approximation of a yawn. A compact device that looks like a blend of a forklift truck and PC monitor bred for maximum cuteness, the robot rolls blearily off its charging station on a pair of dinky treads before tilting its screen-face and noticing I’m there. Its eyes widen, then curve at the bottom as if making way for an unseen smile. “Daaaaan!” it announces with a happy jiggle, sounding not unlike Pixar Animation Studios’ lovable robot creation, Wall-E. A message flashes up on my iPhone telling me that it, or rather he (being the gender that its manufacturer, Anki, has assigned Cozmo) wants to play a game. I’m not in the mood and decline. Cozmo’s head droops, his eyes form into a pair of sadly reclining crescent moons and he sighs. But he quickly cheers up, giving a happy jiggle when I comply with his request for a fist bump and tap my knuckles against his eagerly raised arm. He is easy to please and even easier to like.
Ozobot Evo vs Bit
https://www.robottoyonline.com/ozobot-evo-vs-bit-putting-fun-creativity-in-robotics/
The latest product from Anki, a San Francisco robotics startup, Cozmo is part of a new wave of affordable toy robots that promise a level of emotional engagement far beyond anything we’ve seen before. They are pitched not merely as playthings, but as little buddies. Toy firm Spin Master has its equivalent arriving in the shops for Christmas: the bigger, more retro-looking Meccano MAX. “It’s been designed to modify its behaviour as it learns about its owner and the surrounding world,” explains Spin Master’s brand manager, Becca Hanlon. “MAX basically tailors itself to become a better friend.” Hasbro, meanwhile, is unleashing the FurReal Makers Proto Max, essentially a programmable puppy that, says Craig Wilkins, Hasbro’s marketing director, “allows kids to create their ultimate pet and customise its personality through coding on an app”.
robot toys for adults
https://www.robottoyonline.com/robot-toys-for-adults-fun-companion-like-no-other/
Your child is chatting away to this computer but who owns the conversation? Who owns the data?
Cozmo is the result of a long quest by Anki president and co-founder, Hanns Tappeiner, to bring fictional movie robots such as Short Circuit’s Johnny Five, Star Wars’s R2-D2 or Wall-E into the real world. “We watched a lot of movies and it became obvious that it’s very easy to forge an emotional connection with a movie robot,” says Tappeiner. “And that was so different from the functional robots we saw on a daily basis at Carnegie Mellon [University, where Tappeiner earned his PhD in robotics].” Working with animators and character designers from Hollywood studios such as Pixar, DreamWorks and Lucasfilm, Tappeiner’s team focused hard on creating a robot that was as engaging as possible. “One of the fundamental things we’ve figured out in the last few years is that character and personality in technology are going to be a really big deal. That’s what we as a company are putting 99% of our efforts into.”
Max with Spin Master's Meccano Max
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Max with his namesake: ‘I like how the eyes always change but it has an extremely creepy voice.’ Photograph: Karen Robinson for the Observer
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After a day of play, the effect of Cozmo’s character and personality on my children (Louis, 11, and Max, seven) is striking. “He’s so expressive,” says Louis. “I’m starting to think of him as a little friend or pet I can play with.” The younger sibling goes one further. “Cozmo’s no way our pet,” he demurs. “And he’s not our robot. He’s our child.” It’s an impressive and endearing statement, but also a tad disquieting. This is not a soft toy that only his imagination has given life. This is a mass-produced, artificially intelligent consumer product programmed to engender affection. How much should that really worry me?
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To Alan Winfield, professor of robot ethics at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, the arrival of Cozmo, MAX and co undoubtedly raises concerns. Six years ago, Winfield helped draw up five principles of robotics for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC). “One of those principles,” he explains, “is that robots should never be designed to deceive. In other words, that their machine nature should be transparent. We’re concerned about vulnerable people – they might be children, disabled people, elderly people, people with dementia – coming to believe that the robot cares for them.”
Winfield, who brightly describes himself as “a professional worrier”, insists he’s not opposed to the idea of companion robots. “I think there are demonstrated therapeutic benefits, for instance, in robot pets. But nevertheless we need to be cautious and responsible and mindful of the psychological hazards of attributing feelings to a robot.”
programmable robot kits for beginners
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Some kids can over-project, but they might do that with a doorknob!
I mention the way the Meccano MAX, when switched on, will perkily announce that it’s just had the strangest dream. “I think it’s inappropriate for toys to be programmed with that kind of language,” says Winfield. “It builds the completely incorrect belief that this robot is a person. Robots are not people – that’s a fundamental principle. A robot clearly cannot have feelings. You and I understand that, but some people might not. And that might in turn lead to a dependency.” He cites the Tamagotchi effect, referring to the digital pet craze of the 1990s, where the character could “die” if it did not get enough attention. “It’s not hard to imagine a kind of Tamagotchi effect on steroids,” he warns. “And it’s also not hard to imagine unscrupulous manufacturers exploiting that and saying, ‘Unless you pay us, your robot will die’. I mean, that’s ridiculous, but you get the idea!”
Ozobot Evo vs Bit
https://www.robottoyonline.com/ozobot-evo-vs-bit-putting-fun-creativity-in-robotics/
The latest product from Anki, a San Francisco robotics startup, Cozmo is part of a new wave of affordable toy robots that promise a level of emotional engagement far beyond anything we’ve seen before. They are pitched not merely as playthings, but as little buddies. Toy firm Spin Master has its equivalent arriving in the shops for Christmas: the bigger, more retro-looking Meccano MAX. “It’s been designed to modify its behaviour as it learns about its owner and the surrounding world,” explains Spin Master’s brand manager, Becca Hanlon. “MAX basically tailors itself to become a better friend.” Hasbro, meanwhile, is unleashing the FurReal Makers Proto Max, essentially a programmable puppy that, says Craig Wilkins, Hasbro’s marketing director, “allows kids to create their ultimate pet and customise its personality through coding on an app”.
robot toys for adults
https://www.robottoyonline.com/robot-toys-for-adults-fun-companion-like-no-other/
Your child is chatting away to this computer but who owns the conversation? Who owns the data?
Cozmo is the result of a long quest by Anki president and co-founder, Hanns Tappeiner, to bring fictional movie robots such as Short Circuit’s Johnny Five, Star Wars’s R2-D2 or Wall-E into the real world. “We watched a lot of movies and it became obvious that it’s very easy to forge an emotional connection with a movie robot,” says Tappeiner. “And that was so different from the functional robots we saw on a daily basis at Carnegie Mellon [University, where Tappeiner earned his PhD in robotics].” Working with animators and character designers from Hollywood studios such as Pixar, DreamWorks and Lucasfilm, Tappeiner’s team focused hard on creating a robot that was as engaging as possible. “One of the fundamental things we’ve figured out in the last few years is that character and personality in technology are going to be a really big deal. That’s what we as a company are putting 99% of our efforts into.”
Max with Spin Master's Meccano Max
Max with his namesake: ‘I like how the eyes always change but it has an extremely creepy voice.’ Photograph: Karen Robinson for the Observer
Advertisement
After a day of play, the effect of Cozmo’s character and personality on my children (Louis, 11, and Max, seven) is striking. “He’s so expressive,” says Louis. “I’m starting to think of him as a little friend or pet I can play with.” The younger sibling goes one further. “Cozmo’s no way our pet,” he demurs. “And he’s not our robot. He’s our child.” It’s an impressive and endearing statement, but also a tad disquieting. This is not a soft toy that only his imagination has given life. This is a mass-produced, artificially intelligent consumer product programmed to engender affection. How much should that really worry me?
robot toys online
https://www.robottoyonline.com
To Alan Winfield, professor of robot ethics at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, the arrival of Cozmo, MAX and co undoubtedly raises concerns. Six years ago, Winfield helped draw up five principles of robotics for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC). “One of those principles,” he explains, “is that robots should never be designed to deceive. In other words, that their machine nature should be transparent. We’re concerned about vulnerable people – they might be children, disabled people, elderly people, people with dementia – coming to believe that the robot cares for them.”
Winfield, who brightly describes himself as “a professional worrier”, insists he’s not opposed to the idea of companion robots. “I think there are demonstrated therapeutic benefits, for instance, in robot pets. But nevertheless we need to be cautious and responsible and mindful of the psychological hazards of attributing feelings to a robot.”
programmable robot kits for beginners
https://www.robottoyonline.com/choosing-the-best-programmable-robot-kit-for-beginners/
Some kids can over-project, but they might do that with a doorknob!
I mention the way the Meccano MAX, when switched on, will perkily announce that it’s just had the strangest dream. “I think it’s inappropriate for toys to be programmed with that kind of language,” says Winfield. “It builds the completely incorrect belief that this robot is a person. Robots are not people – that’s a fundamental principle. A robot clearly cannot have feelings. You and I understand that, but some people might not. And that might in turn lead to a dependency.” He cites the Tamagotchi effect, referring to the digital pet craze of the 1990s, where the character could “die” if it did not get enough attention. “It’s not hard to imagine a kind of Tamagotchi effect on steroids,” he warns. “And it’s also not hard to imagine unscrupulous manufacturers exploiting that and saying, ‘Unless you pay us, your robot will die’. I mean, that’s ridiculous, but you get the idea!”
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