Saya robot mosolyog és dorgál

Saya, a robottanár újabb példa a szakterületben rejlő alkalmazási – ezúttal oktatási – potenciálra.

Japan's robot teacher calls roll, smiles and scolds, drawing laughter from students with her eerily lifelike face. But the developer says it's not about to replace human instructors. Unlike more mechanical-looking robots like Honda Motor's Asimo, the robot teacher, called Saya, can express six basic emotions - surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness, sadness - because its rubber skin is being pulled from the back with motors and wiring around the eyes and the mouth. In a demonstration, the robot's mouth popped open, its eyes widened and eyebrows arched to appear surprised. Saya pulled back on its lips to make a smile, and said simple preprogrammed phrases such as "Thank you," while its lips moved, to express pleasure.
"Robots that look human tend to be a big hit with young children and the elderly," Hiroshi Kobayashi, Tokyo University of Science professor and Saya's developer, said. "Children even start crying when they are scolded." First developed as a receptionist robot in 2004, Saya was tested in a real Tokyo classroom this year with a handful of fifth and sixth graders. "Simply turning our grandparents over to teams of robots abrogates our society's responsibility to each other, and encourages a loss of touch with reality for this already mentally and physically challenged population," Kobayashi said. Noel Sharkey, robotics expert and professor at the University of Sheffield, believes robots can serve as an educational aid in inspiring interest in science, but they can't replace humans. Kobayashi says Saya is just meant to help people and warns against getting hopes up too high for its possibilities. "The robot has no intelligence. It has no ability to learn. It has no identity," he said. "It is just a tool."

It3 komment: A több éve futó projekt tanulsága, hogy egyre emberszerűbb, mind jobban és sokrétűbben kommunikáló robotok fejleszthetők. Valószínűleg nagy szükség is lesz rájuk az elöregedő társadalmakban, különösen az ezirányú fejlesztésekben élenjáró Japánban. De hiába a hasonlóság, Saya gép, (egyelőre) képtelen tanulni, nem rendelkezik intelligenciával. Legalábbis fejlesztője szerint, ami igen érdekes állítás, mert tervezőik kevésbé látványos robotokról is hajlamosak ennek az ellenkezőjét állítani.

Forrás: www.chinadaily.com