Designing Sociable Robots

This chapter contains sections titled: Half Title, Intelligent Robots and Autonomous Agents, Title, Copyright, Dedication, Contents, Preface, Acknowledgements, Sources View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Why Sociable Robots?, The Robot, Kismet, Ingredients of Sociable Robots, Book Overview, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Lessons from Human Computer Interaction, Socially Situated Learning, Embodied Systems That Interact with Humans, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Early Infant-Caregiver Interactions, Development of Communication and Meaning, Scaffolding for Social Learning, Proto-Social Responses for Kismet, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Design Issues for Sociable Robots, Design Hints from Animals, Humans, and Infants, A Framework for the Synthetic Nervous System, Mechanics of the Synthetic Nervous System, Criteria for Evaluation, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Robot Aesthetics and Physicality, The Hardware Design, Overview of the Perceptual System, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Design of the Attention System, Post-Attentive Processing, Results and Evaluation, Limitations and Extensions, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Recognizing Affect in Human Speech, Affect and Meaning in Infant-Directed Speech, Design Issues for Recognizing Affective Intent, The Affective Intent Classifier, Integration with the Emotion System, Affective Human-Robot Communication, Limitations and Extensions, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Motivations in Living Systems, The Homeostatic Regulation System, The Emotion System, Regulating Playful Interactions, Limitations and Extensions, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Infant-Caregiver Interaction, Lessons from Ethology, Organization of Kismet's Behavior System, Kismet's Proto-Social Responses, Overview of the Motor Systems, Playful Interactions with Kismet, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Design Issues for Facial Animation, Levels of Face Control, Generation of Facial Expressions, Analysis of Facial Expressions, Evaluation of Expressive Behavior, Limitations and Extensions, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Emotion in Human Speech, Expressive Voice Synthesis, Implementation Overview, Kismet's Expressive Utterances, Real-Time Lip Synchronization and Facial Animation, Limitations and Extensions, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Human Visual Behavior, Design Issues for Visual Behavior, The Oculo-Motor System, Visual Motor Skills, Visual Behavior, Visual Behavior and Social Interplay, Evidence of Social Amplification, Limitations and Extensions, Summary View full abstract»

This chapter contains sections titled: Summary of Key Design Issues, Infrastructure for Socially Situated Learning, Grand Challenge Problems, Reflections and Dreams View full abstract»

Cynthia Breazeal here presents her vision of the sociable robot of the future, a synthetic creature and not merely a sophisticated tool. A sociable robot will be able to understand us, to communicate and interact with us, to learn from us and grow with us. It will be socially intelligent in a humanlike way. Eventually sociable robots will assist us in our daily lives, as collaborators and companions. Because the most successful sociable robots will share our social characteristics, the effort to make sociable robots is also a means for exploring human social intelligence and even what it means to be human.Breazeal defines the key components of social intelligence for these machines and offers a framework and set of design issues for their realization. Much of the book focuses on a nascent sociable robot she designed named Kismet. Breazeal offers a concrete implementation for Kismet, incorporating insights from the scientific study of animals and people, as well as from artistic disciplines such as classical animation. This blending of science, engineering, and art creates a lifelike quality that encourages people to treat Kismet as a social creature rather than just a machine. The book includes a CD-ROM that shows Kismet in action. View full abstract»

Cynthia Breazeal here presents her vision of the sociable robot of the future, a synthetic creature and not merely a sophisticated tool. A sociable robot will be able to understand us, to communicate and interact with us, to learn from us and grow with us. It will be socially intelligent in a humanlike way. Eventually sociable robots will assist us in our daily lives, as collaborators and companions. Because the most successful sociable robots will share our social characteristics, the effort to make sociable robots is also a means for exploring human social intelligence and even what it means to be human.Breazeal defines the key components of social intelligence for these machines and offers a framework and set of design issues for their realization. Much of the book focuses on a nascent sociable robot she designed named Kismet. Breazeal offers a concrete implementation for Kismet, incorporating insights from the scientific study of animals and people, as well as from artistic disciplines such as classical animation. This blending of science, engineering, and art creates a lifelike quality that encourages people to treat Kismet as a social creature rather than just a machine. The book includes a CD-ROM that shows Kismet in action. View full abstract»