How Robots Saved an Artist's Sanity 26
New submitter lebijoutier writes "According to Slate, '[Patrick] Tresset, for one, discovered a novel way to stay mentally healthy with the help of drugs and still pursue what was once his life's work: He created robots that can draw portraits. Far from a mere novelty, his research is telling us more about both the creative process in humans and how we relate emotionally to machines. ... Most of us still don't have robots in the home, but for decades now, we've been waiting for machines to do our bidding. Tresset believes that it might be a good idea to imbue all personal robots with some sort of artistic skill to encourage an emotional bond — it might allow for more trust, perhaps, though you can also see how overly identifying with a machine might create some existential questions.' The article also has a fascinating video of five of his robots sketching a single human."
Moravec's Paradox (Score:1)
Puzzled Curator (Score:3, Funny)
"Who's this 'Skynet' artist who signs all these works we keep getting?"
Re: (Score:2)
Better than the Nigerian Prince portrait (Score:3, Funny)
My favorite work from this is called "Hacked by Chinese", followed by "BSOD" in blue pen.
I can see it now: (Score:1)
Slashdotter: "I only purchase works done in Linux."
doesn't compute (Score:4, Insightful)
Tresset believes that it might be a good idea to imbue all personal robots with some sort of artistic skill to encourage an emotional bond
That seems like putting the cart before the horse. How about creating a robot with voice capabilities that are similar to natural speech? Or something that doesn't look and act like the killer cowboy from "Westworld"?
Any machine that can simulate possessing an emotional core creates sympathy/empathy. However, a Dreadnought [google.com] a la Iron Man baking me a cake or doing water color is still a freaking Dreadnought.
Re: (Score:1)
But that's just the kind of robot I want answering the door when Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and bill collectors knock.
Re: (Score:2)
Not just natural speech sound, but natural speech response. There's research that claims that speaking to and getting a live-sounding answer from a machine humanizes them even more than having a face, to the point where people will develop an attachment to the machine in question.
It's hard to quantify, as all such things are in humans, but it appears that humans respond to three things best: facial expression, voice, and body language. The importance of these things is not what many people might think. W
Give a man something to do... (Score:2)
...and it will keep his interest and divert attention away from other things, even depressing thoughts.
Of course, it could be taken too far...
Another visitor...
Stay a while.
Stay forever!
What?! Don't do that! (Score:1)
Sure about the robots? (Score:3)
discovered a novel way to stay mentally healthy with the help of drugs
Re: (Score:2)
I know an artist with no arms (Score:3)
As for TFA, seems like the guy has no creative urges when he's on meds. I'm glad he found a different way to express himself.
Most of us still don't have robots in the home (Score:2)
most of us do.
Lets see:
I have a machine that washes dishes.
One to was cloths.
One to Dry Clothes.
I have on that tells me when someone one want to communicate
I have on the organizes my messages,
I have one the automatically turns on what I want to see
Most people have a robot that record the shows they want to see.
It's just a case they some people think robots are some far off thing, so when they show up in normal activity they get dismissed.
Re: (Score:2)
I even have robots that can draw portraits, too, when my digital camera and printer work in concert.
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Cart before the horse. (Score:2)
" Tresset believes that it might be a good idea to imbue all personal robots with some sort of artistic skill to encourage an emotional bond"
If he finds a way, I'm all for it. But his current robot is a webcam hooked to a photoshop filter and piped to a mechanical arm - technically very impressive, but not actually artistic in any useful sense of the word.
Re: (Score:1)
Well that Van Gogh guy was just a bio-mechanical version of the same system you described (he saw with eyes, processed with a brain, and articulated the result of that processing with an arm).
At this point I think we're just arguing over the nature of the "filters" applied in that middle step and which ones get to be called "art".
People with industrial strength robots enter here (Score:1)
Anyone who has one or more please responds with data ;) to undermine that "not everybody has one"
1.) robot mass 320kg
2.) lifting capacitiy 15kg
3.) manufacturer: Manutec
4.) type: r15
5.) axis: 6 axis - robotic arm type
6.) built: around 1987