Robots that love you back. Image Source: Lovotics.
Happy Valentine's Day! For my earlier posts on Millennial romance, see my post on love and the Millennial male (here) and love and the Millennial female (here). For today, here's something in between. According to Slate, robotics researchers at the National University of Singapore have solved one of the peskiest problems of Millennial virtual romance: the lack of a physical connection. They have developed mechanical avatars that can transmit physical movements on either side of an Internet link. See below the jump for the robot that physically connects people via Skype, called the Kissinger.
Kissinger is made by the same lab staff who are developing something called the Mini Surrogate. I'll leave you to find out what that is. The researchers are also designing a robot, Lovotics, which can reciprocate human love. I especially like the white plush hat they gave it. Oh, and the artificial endochrine system they're cooking up for it:
See all my posts on Love in the New Millennium.
Kissinger is made by the same lab staff who are developing something called the Mini Surrogate. I'll leave you to find out what that is. The researchers are also designing a robot, Lovotics, which can reciprocate human love. I especially like the white plush hat they gave it. Oh, and the artificial endochrine system they're cooking up for it:
Warning: some of the activities below are simulated.The novel advanced artificial intelligence system of Lovotics includes an Artificial Endocrine System (based on physiology of love), Probabilistic Love Assembly (based on psychology of love) and Affective State Transition (based on emotions) modules.
Psychological unit of the Lovotics artificial intelligence calculates probabilistic parameters of love between humans and the robot. Various parameters such as proximity, propinquity, repeated exposure, similarity, desirability, attachment, reciprocal liking, satisfaction, privacy, chronemics, attraction, form, and mirroring are taken into consideration.
Physiological unit of the Lovotics artificial intelligence employs artificial endocrine system consisting of artificial emotional and biological hormones. Artificial emotional hormones include Dopamine, Serotonin, Endorphin, and Oxytocin. For biological hormones Melatonin, Norepinephrine, Epinephrine, Orexin, Ghrelin, and Leptin hormones are employed which modulate biological parameters such as blood glucose, body temperature and appetite.
Video Source: Youtube.
Video Source: Youtube.
Lovotics, Episode 1. Video Source: Youtube.
Lovotics, Episode 2. Video Source: Youtube.
See all my posts on Love in the New Millennium.
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Okay, this is somewhere between LOL and WTF?!?
ReplyDeleteLong term implications? Almost human bots designed to fulfill certain....needs, as was deliberately indicated. A robot revolution might not be far behind... -J
Yes, we are left to read between the lines about where this is all going to go. Regarding the professor who is the research lead, I suspect this is one academic who will make an unusually large amount of money from his work.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't already had a chance to read it, you might find David Levy's "Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships" to be interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt uses various studies in a wide range of areas to argue the basic idea of what you are referring to here. While it can get a bit tedious at times as it is designed to argue the point for those who would have been otherwise unconvinced of the possibility, it is still a good overview of the developing technologies and how they might progress.