Observations Portend Robotic Inclusion in Society

  • Kevin Bjorke

    Making human gestures toward machines is not entirely new of course — think how often we see people “talking with their hands” while on the phone (or in Japan, bowing to the phone). Fascinating just the same.

  • Ray Renteria

    This is true; however, in those circumstances, both users are in cyberspace trying to gesture to each other, not toward the technology. (Bruce Sterling describes cyberspace as that place you go when you’re on the phone.)

    In Movellan’s observations, the gestures are targeted directly toward an animate object whose sole purpose is to interact with humans and evoke emotional responses. An inanimate version of the robot was also put in the children’s environment as a control in the study. The children got bored with it and didn’t gain the same kind of attachment.

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