"SOCIABLE MACHINE".(lifelike robot)(Brief Article)

Publication: USA Today (Magazine)

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2001 Society for the Advancement of Education

Interact with Humans

"Hello, Kismet," uttered Cynthia Breazeal in a singsong voice. Leaning closer to the object of her attention, she asked, "Are you going to talk to me?" The exchange could be familiar to any parent, but Kismet is not a child. It's a robotic head that can interact with people in a human-like way via a variety of facial expressions, head positions, and tones of voice. "The goal is to build a socially intelligent machine that learns things as we learn them, through social interactions," explains Breazeal, a postdoctoral associate at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and leader of the Kismet team.

Building a sociable machine, she believes, is key to building a smarter machine. Most current...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.