I was impressed from the quality of projects, variety and visitors. This last Arduino Day in London was great, different than last year. We had fun, visitors, demonstrations and even a little party after!
I don't want to talk much, let's that some pictures talk by themselves:
The third photo waving at the robot confrms yet again that humans really want / need the robot to be interactive and as we slowly / quickly move towards AI. Reacting to sensors is one thing - reacting to people’s emotions with what appear to be emotional responses will be something everyone will love.
That’s true Cole. People were trying to interact with the robot, they were actively asking how to interact, which sensors, then trying by themselves. Some children were even closer to the robot so I had to warn them to not get damaged themselves
I think there must be many kind of approaches to robots from dislike to curiosity, but in general I think we’ll get used to them like we are with cars, airplanes or any complex machine that just serves for something. However some people are getting crazy already, like this guy: http://mashable.com/2017/04/04/engineer-marries-robot-wife/#ooQbbQBH7sqP
Thanks for also including the Flickr pictures. Interesting always how different photographers have different perspectives, and how that can totally change your impression of events.
I don’t really agree with the trend. Giving robots emotions can have something fake and untrustable (with respect to the robot and the maker – think of Eliza, well Weizenbaum just experimented and didn’t have any ulterior motives, but it raised some discussions), since they work equally well without them. They can certainly create emotions of joy and amazement, but that’s something different.
The good thing about machines is that they do not try to interpret what we do or say. What we really need is software/robots that are less rigid in how they expect us to express what we want to say. But they shouldn’t start to interpret what we want or be invasive by reading emotions and adapting to them.
I think the main frustration with software/robots today comes from not being able to express what we want easily. But there is no need to be “understanding” and emotional to cover up for these design issues.
People just cannot be replaced when it comes to emotions, and I say that as a technology enthusiast since being a kid.
Very interesting topic that you bring @maelh! Isaac Asimov explores that a lot in several of his books… I think we’ll see more emotions treatment in machines in the near future, either to read them or to even make them. But I think it’s good to talk about it and see what rules we should establish about it.