May 25 - An ultra-realistic robot, known as a geminoid, is helping psychologists test how we relate ...

1. Ultra-realistic robots test our relationship with machines |
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May 25 - An ultra-realistic robot, known as a geminoid, is helping psychologists test how we relate to
machines. The device is designed to be almost identical to the professor who's leading the project in
Denmark. Stuart McDill reports.
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Professor Henrik Scharfe is on the left. On the right is a robot mimicking his every move.
(SOUNDBITE)(English) ASSISTANT PROFESSOR HENRIK SCHARFE, AALBORG UNIVERSITY
SAYING:
"It's a little bit like science fiction but without the fiction part, we call it science faction.

2. The robot is called Geminoid DK and is designed to help us understand how we relate to technology.
(SOUNDBITE)(English) ASSISTANT PROFESSOR HENRIK SCHARFE, AALBORG UNIVERSITY
SAYING:
"It really makes people think about the role of technology in their everyday life."
There are three Geminoid robots in the world and DK is the first with a non-Japanese character.
It is now helping Professor Scharfe at Aalborg University in Denmark to study human-robot
interaction and how far we are prepared to let that relationship go.
(SOUNDBITE)(English) ASSISTANT PROFESSOR HENRIK SCHARFE, AALBORG UNIVERSITY
SAYING:
"Imagine for instance that you have someone like this sitting at a kindergarten telling stories -- Now,
people usually object to this idea and then I ask them are you happy with a TV or DVD set doing the
same thing and they typically say Oh, yes. So, I'm interested in what makes up the difference here."
The difference of course is that Geminoid DK looks and moves like a person - unlike the more
familiar technology with which we interact on a daily basis.
(SOUNDBITE)(English) ASSISTANT PROFESSOR HENRIK SCHARFE, AALBORG UNIVERSITY
SAYING:
"Remember the first time you saw an ATM machine. For most people that was appalling. We used to
have human contact when we needed to get money out of the bank -- but in general I think that
people are happy to accept that we have choices. So for some cases I want to go into the bank and
have a conversation at other times I'm perfectly happy with the ATM in the street or the robotic
waiter at the restaurant, or the robotic receptionist or the story telling machine in the kindergarten
or the visiting friend at a hospital bedside."
There are examples of robots that we are quite happy to interact with. This is Paro, a robotic baby
seal, that studies have shown has a positive, therapeutic effect on the emotional lives of some older
people who enjoy holding and stroking the device.
And we will know more soon. DK will be introduced to unsuspecting shoppers in Denmark this
summer and the Professor is also considering using the robot to dismiss a member of staff to see
how they respond.
Man's - or machine's - inhumanity to man .
Stuart McDill, Reuters, Denmark
http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/05/25/ultra-realistic-robots-test-our-relation?videoId=211105591