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This robot can sense how you're feeling and let others know |
| on 25-09-2006 05:33 |
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This robot can sense how you're feeling ― and let others know
September 25, 2006 ㅡ A fight with her boyfriend
inspired a robot designer to create an emotionally friendly robot ― and
she won an international award for her work.
Kwak So-na, a Ph.D. student in industrial design at the Korea Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology, received first prize for her
emotive robot "Hamie" in the 2006 Robot Companion Design Contest for
Students.
The event took place earlier this month as part of the Ro-man 2006/15th
IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive
Communication, held at the University of Hertfordshire in England.
Ms. Kwak, 28, drafted the design for Hamie in 2000, when she
temporarily broke up with her boyfriend after a huge quarrel. "I wanted
to tell him that I wanted to see him again but I couldn't find the
courage to talk to him in person," she said.
That's when she designed the cute, stubby character to represent her
feelings. She initially created two designs ― one as a hologram and one
as a robot ― and was encouraged to develop the latter by her father,
Kwak Yung-geun, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Korea
institute and an expert in robotic science.
Hamie's name comes from "hamster," reflecting Ms. Kwak's desire to
create a tiny, friendly pet. The robot comes in three different
materials: transparent acrylic, metal and rubber. "The texture is very
important because this robot is an emotional product," Ms. Kwak said.
Ms. Kwak said she has ideas for how Hamie will function, but they are
only in a conceptual stage. "I'm a designer so I don't do the actual
engineering, but I believe that the concepts I have are technologically
possible," she said.
The main feature of Hamie will be its emotional gauge. The robot will
recognize one's pulse, and its flexible ears, for instance, will droop,
perk up, or curve into a heart according to the user's mood. Another
idea for Hamie is that the color of the robot will change according to
the user's mood, Ms. Kwak said.
Hamies can be used to give other people to show them your feelings, Ms.
Kwak said. She said that Hamies are different from cell phones because
they are more advanced in ways of expressing oneself, rather than text
messages.
Although Hamie does not function technically, the robot's emotional
powers have already been proven. The man who inspired Ms. Kwak's vision
in the first place is now her husband.
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