How is this for an entertaining robot. It plays the violin. Why it needs a humanoid shape to do this is beyond me though.
Author: Jeroen Page 18 of 51
iCat should not be confused with i-Cat.
iCat appears to be developed right here in the Netherlands. At least I saw that Cristoph Bartneck (TUe) and Philips Research mentioned. Bartneck has a whole bunch of interesting papers on social robotics, so I decided to email him about it.
This little TriBot is a funny little fella. Not much happening as far as interaction goes, it only has a few infrared sensors. It talks a lot though.
Check out this performance from today’s ultimate robot entertainer, Cyberstein:
Apparently, you can book him for a party. Or you can visit him entertaining the crowds at the Millennium Dome and some other venues.
The robot uncovered
Here is a really nice robot with eyes that actually allow you to see where he is looking! Quite good, I definitely would put that sort of thing in a robot.
Quite a few people find this robot scary, by the way. Would it be the same as with how a robot looks: appreciation rises if it more human until it suddenly falls when it becomes too human?
Besides the eyes, there is also some facial expression even if it is only through opening and closing of the eyes.
Here is a guy who has spent quite a bit of effort on getting robots to learn something.
Is this, as he claims, how a child learns? I’ll have to think that one over.
This is the good stuff. Do you see how a bit of interaction (even if it is scripted) creates a magical impression? How difficult can it be to program stuff like this if you know what you want?
Here is a golden oldie from Sony, QRIO.
Unfortunately they stopped work on QRIO in 2006.
Disney made a toy robot after the animated movie star. Spot the differences!