Giggling Robot Becomes One of the Kids
From: New Scientist - 11/05/2007
By: Mason Inman

Toddlers treated a sophisticated, giggling robot much the same way they did
each other during the first long-term study of interaction between kids and
robots. Javier Movellan at the University of California San Diego led the
project, which involved placing a two-foot-tall robot in a classroom of a
dozen toddlers between the age of 18 months and two years. The QRIO robot,
developed by Sony, used sensors to stay in the middle of the classroom and
avoid bumping into the children, and was initially programmed to giggle when
its head was touched, occasionally sit down, and lie down when its batteries
died. The way the toddlers touched QRIO on the arms and hands, and gave more
attention and care, including hugs, to the robot compared to an inanimate
control robot, was viewed as signs of bonding. The researchers also say the
quality of the interactions increased over several months, as the toddlers
helped QRIO up when it fell, and covered up the robot with a blanket and said
"night, night" when its batteries ran out. Although the study shows that kids
will bond with robots over a long period of time, Movellan says it is too
early to say the same about older children and adults. "This study opens the
possibility for classroom applications," says Takayuki Kanda of the Advanced
Telecommunications Research Institute in Japan, adding that it could help
autistic children. 

Read the entire article at:
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12879-giggling-robot-becomes-one-of-the-kids-.html

Links:
RubiNet
http://mplab.ucsd.edu/wordpress/?page_id=243

R Is for Robot
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.10/robot.html

Key Found to Making Robots Human-Friendly
http://www.livescience.com/technology/071105-qrio-robot.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21644161/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/keyfoundtomakingrobotshumanfriendly

Touch Found to Be Key in Making Robots Human-Friendly
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,308338,00.html

Takayuki Kanda
http://www.irc.atr.jp/~kanda/

QRIO
http://www.plyojump.com/qrio.html