HUMAVIPS : Robots able to identify you in a crowd

The HUMAVIPS project consists of developing Homanoids with auditory and visual abilities in populated spaces. ("Humanoids with auditory and visual abilities in populated spaces"). European researchers are developing a prototype robotic that will be able to find a particular person amongst a noisy crowd and/or with background music, based mainly on facial and auditory recognition. Professor Radu Horaud's team at INRIA of Grenoble in France has been working on this project totalling 2.6 million Euro for three years now. Humavips also wants to create a robot with social skills, able to interact with a human by studying his gestures. It is an ambitious project that will require several years. The work is conducted together with Aldebaran Robotics, that hopes to implement this intelligent recognition and social interaction technology into its future robots NAO.