Advanced Social Skills For Humanoid Robots 92
Lanxon writes "A pan-European team of robotics researchers began a project this year that could see humanoid bots interact with groups of people in a realistic, anthropomorphic way for the first time. The 'humanoids with auditory and visual abilities in populated spaces' (HUMAVIPS) project has the ambitious goal of making humanoid bots just a bit more human by building algorithms that will enable bots to mimic what psychologists call the 'cocktail party effect' — the human ability to focus attention on just one person in the midst of other people, voices and background noise."
Re:Yanee dah poo noo, ho ho ho (Score:2, Insightful)
Why are we working so hard on creating protocol droids when utility droids are so much better?
Except that a protocol droid IS a utility droid under the right circumstances. C-3PO knows "over six million forms of communication"; that's extremely useful for diplomats, foreign exchange students, travelers, etc., etc., etc. Not everyone needs a garbage can that can plug into their computer and display low-res holograms. Heck, C-3PO was needed most of the time so that people could understand just what in the world your "clever, handy, and quick" droid was trying to do or say. For a more relevant example, let's say that R2-D2 is a Linux computer C-3PO is a Mac. Tons of people still use the latter, don't they?
Can I get an upgrade? (Score:3, Insightful)
focusing on one person in a crowded room, being able to hear what one person is saying despite a lot of other talking and background noise I don't care about? I don't have that super-power, where do I sign up?