The QRIO prototypes were developed and manufactured by Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratory, Inc.The number of these prototypes in existence is unknown. Up to ten QRIO have been seen performing a dance routine together; this was confirmed by a Sony representative at the Museum of Science in Boston, MA on January 22, 2006. Many videos of this can be found on the web.
Four fourth-generation QRIO prototype robots were featured dancing in the Hell Yes music video by recording artist Beck. These prototypes lacked a third camera in the center of the forehead and the improved hands and wrists which were added to later prototypes. It took programmers three weeks to program their choreography.
QRIO is capable of voice and face recognition, making it able to remember people as well as their likes and dislikes. A video on QRIO's website shows it speaking with several children. QRIO can run at 23 cm/s, and is credited in Guinness World Records (2005 edition) as being the first bipedal robot capable of running (which it defines as moving while both legs are off the ground at the same time). The 4th generation QRIO's internal battery lasts about 1 hourIn the study, QRIO was introduced into a classroom of toddlers aged 18 months to 24 months. Children of this age group were chosen because they have no preconceived notions of robots and they communicate using touch as much as speech.
"The children accepted the presence of QRIO very well," Movellan told LiveScience. "There were a few children who were very interested but maintained distance. Over time, the relationship between children and QRIO evolved positively."
In phase I of the experiment, which lasted 27 sessions, QRIO was instructed to interact with the children using its full behavioral repertoire, which included head-turning, dancing and giggling. At first, the children would touch the robot on its face, but as they warmed to him, the majority of their touches were to its hands and arms—a pattern the children also displayed toward each other.
During phase II, which lasted 15 sessions, QRIO ignored the children's touches and danced throughout the session. "At that point, the [children] quickly lost interest," Movellan said.
When QRIO's ability to respond to touch and giggle were returned for three sessions in phase III, the children became friendly with the robot again. When robot's batteries died and it laid on the floor, some of the children cried. Others put a blanket over him and said, "nigh-nigh."
Like R2-D2
QRIO's success shows robots don't need to be entirely "life-like" to be successful, Movellan said. QRIO stood only about 2-feet (58 centimeters) tall, and its only resemblance to a human was that it had two hands and walked on two legs. And because speech-recognition technology doesn't work well in noisy environments, QRIO couldn't even talk.
"QRIO was kind of like R2-D2 [in "Star Wars"]," Movellan said. "It expressed emotions but not speech."
The ability to respond to touch is relatively easy to program into robots, Movellan said. "We had things like computer vision in the robot, and touch was the easiest thing," he said. "And it turned out to be the most important to get things going."
Adults weren't completely immune to QRIO's charms either, Movellan said. Even though the researchers said it was OK, teachers supervising the children would try to stop them when they poked QRIO in the eye. However, the teachers did not try to stop the children when they poked the eyes of an inanimate toy robot, named "Robby," that looked like QRIO.
QRIO "elicits these feelings on us," Movellan said. "First of all, we feel badly if the children are doing that to the robot. And secondly, there is this problem that if you don't tell the children not to treat the robot as another person, they may actually be learning bad things about how to treat other people."
posted by: Abdul Zahir Jan Magsi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_QRIO_SDR-4x
Four fourth-generation QRIO prototype robots were featured dancing in the Hell Yes music video by recording artist Beck. These prototypes lacked a third camera in the center of the forehead and the improved hands and wrists which were added to later prototypes. It took programmers three weeks to program their choreography.
"The children accepted the presence of QRIO very well," Movellan told LiveScience. "There were a few children who were very interested but maintained distance. Over time, the relationship between children and QRIO evolved positively."
In phase I of the experiment, which lasted 27 sessions, QRIO was instructed to interact with the children using its full behavioral repertoire, which included head-turning, dancing and giggling. At first, the children would touch the robot on its face, but as they warmed to him, the majority of their touches were to its hands and arms—a pattern the children also displayed toward each other.
During phase II, which lasted 15 sessions, QRIO ignored the children's touches and danced throughout the session. "At that point, the [children] quickly lost interest," Movellan said.
When QRIO's ability to respond to touch and giggle were returned for three sessions in phase III, the children became friendly with the robot again. When robot's batteries died and it laid on the floor, some of the children cried. Others put a blanket over him and said, "nigh-nigh."
Like R2-D2
QRIO's success shows robots don't need to be entirely "life-like" to be successful, Movellan said. QRIO stood only about 2-feet (58 centimeters) tall, and its only resemblance to a human was that it had two hands and walked on two legs. And because speech-recognition technology doesn't work well in noisy environments, QRIO couldn't even talk.
"QRIO was kind of like R2-D2 [in "Star Wars"]," Movellan said. "It expressed emotions but not speech."
The ability to respond to touch is relatively easy to program into robots, Movellan said. "We had things like computer vision in the robot, and touch was the easiest thing," he said. "And it turned out to be the most important to get things going."
Adults weren't completely immune to QRIO's charms either, Movellan said. Even though the researchers said it was OK, teachers supervising the children would try to stop them when they poked QRIO in the eye. However, the teachers did not try to stop the children when they poked the eyes of an inanimate toy robot, named "Robby," that looked like QRIO.
posted by: Abdul Zahir Jan Magsi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_QRIO_SDR-4x
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