Friday, July 15. 2005

Wanted: This cat tells bad jokes!

Photo: iCat
Philips has an interesting project featuring (immobile) robotic cats that can display a wide array of facial expressions to be used as social cues in human-robot interactions. True, the cat may be sausage-lipped, tell bad jokes, and move in a slightly jerky fashion, but it's definitely a step in a very interesting direction, and I for one applaud them for taking it. (See the site for more info, images and movies to reach your own conclusions.)

I was somewhat surprised though that when they tested different "personalities", they didn't also run a separate series of tests to learn about the (human) test subjects' reaction to different voices — or if they did, this wasn't mentioned. I was distinctly taken aback by the cat's voice, feeling it not only didn't match the electric animal's appearance, but also finding it rather stern. While I realize that speech synthesis has its own issues, choosing an amiable voice to work from would go a long way towards acceptance by the more aurally oriented.
(via oliof)
Posted by Azundris in English at 11:52 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)
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Azundris on :

*I hope you are suitably grateful for my avoiding the obvious titles, "Do android cats dream of electric mice" and, even worse, "I for one welcome our new electric cat overladies."

Azundris on :

*Not to mention "Elektroeichkater."

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