Wired News Furrybot to Watch Over You

""While children often form emotional attachments to teddy bears, stuffed animals, blankets and other objects, senior citizens generally do not."

But Matsushita said residents have no problem interacting with the pets. Women who participated in a trial wanted to keep their newfound friends, Kadota said.

"I see no reason why, with the appropriate feedback, that reasonable bonding could not be achieved between a robot pet and its human owner," said Martin King, a research fellow at the University of Salford's Center for Robotics and Automation. The center is currently designing a robotic gorilla to interact with children."

redux [02.04.02]
The New York Times Man Who Would Be God: Giving Robots Life
[requires 'free' registration]

""A game it might have been, but if you'll forgive the staggering lack of modesty this implies, Creatures was probably the closest thing there has been to a new form of life on this planet in four billion years," Mr. Grand writes. "These creatures probably still represent the state of the art in synthetic life forms.""

""Steve Grand is the creator of what I think is the nearest approach to artificial life so far," Mr. Dawkins has said. Speaking of Mr. Grand's latest endeavor, what is known as the Lucy project, he told The Sunday Times: "With his record, if anyone could pull off such a spectacular coup, it would be him.""

redux [11.07.01]
AsiaWeek Robot Lovin'

"A.I. is of course fantasy, but Japan today is testing the plotline for real. Using interactive toys programmed to behave as obsequiously as the average lapdog, health care workers are trying to add companionship and emotional sustenance that may be missing from the lives of hospitalized children and elderly shut-ins. Researchers hope that one day, armies of sharing, caring machines will shore up a medical system that is hard-pressed to meet the demands of a rapidly aging society. Robots might even serve as surrogate family members, providing contact and affection for patients who have no immediate relatives nearby."

redux [08.01.01]
Ananova New doll 'has real feeding and sleeping patterns'

"A new toy doll which it makers claim has realistic skin, senses and reflexes has gone on sale in the UK.

Miracle Baby smiles when she's fed, frowns when she's tired and develops her own feeding, playing and sleeping patterns over time.

Her makers, Mattel, have used similar technology to that used by the manufacturers of robot dogs which led to a worldwide craze for the artificial pets."

redux [05.11.01]
NPR : All Things Considered People Who Like Fake Dogs

"Robert Siegel talks with Sherry Turkle, professor of the sociology of science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Turkle has studied people's relationships with computational objects for the past 20 years. She says recently some computers have been designed to ask humans to "nurture" them and humans respond. Turkle says that the attachment of AIBO owners to their robot dogs raises questions about what it means to love an object that doesn't know you're there."

redux [05.25.00]
The New York Times What Do You Mean, 'It's Just Like a Real Dog'?
[requires 'free' registration]

"What do children think about what it means to be alive? And at what ages can children distinguish mechanical objects from real animals or people? Research into these questions is still in its earliest stages. There was a flurry of interest in children's reactions when Tamagotchis, virtual pets from Japan, first appeared a few years ago and then started dying on their young owners. But the topic is attracting more attention now as seemingly intelligent toys and other robots appear on the market in increasing variety and numbers. "

"Again and again... researchers have asked the children: "Is it alive? Is it like a real pet? Does it know you?"

"Strikingly," Ms. Audley said, "often the answer they settled on was, "It's not alive in a human or animal kind of way, but in a Furby kind of way.""

redux [04.21.00]
The Third Culture A new kind of object: From Rorschach to Relationship

"I have studied the effects of computational objects on human developmental psychology for over twenty years, documenting the ways that computation and its metaphors have influenced our thinking about such matters as how the mind works, what it means to be intelligent, and what is special about being human. Now, I believe that a new kind of computational object - the relational artifact - is provoking striking new changes in the narrative of human development, especially in the way people think about life, and about what kind of relationships it is appropriate to have with a machine. Relational artifacts are computational objects designed to recognize and respond to the affective states of human beings - and indeed, to present themselves as having "affective" states of their own. They include children's playthings (such as Furbies and Tamagotchis), digital dolls that double as health monitoring systems for the homebound elderly (Matsushita's forthcoming Tama), sentient robots whose knowledge and personalities change through their interactions with humans, as well as software that responds to its users' emotional states and responds with "emotional states" of their own."

"By accepting a new category of relationship, with entities that they recognize as "sort-of-alive", or "alive in a different, but legitimate way," today's children will redefine the scope and shape of the playing field for social relations in the future."

redux [09.88.00]
Wired Magazine Congratulations, It's A Bot!

""When kids play, they create an entire world that's alive, and it never objects to them. A kid's imagination is a completely open architecture, and there are no bounds to what a toy can do," he explains.

"That's the future of toys. Technology's role is to become transparent. If you give the cues of autonomy, the imagination fills in the blanks, because that's what it's meant to do."

As processing power and sensors improve, the difference between simulated autonomy and actual autonomy will blur. Already it's difficult to relate to these new technological creatures without imputing to them the sorts of feelings we routinely discover in, say, our pets. And when you throw in realistic human behavior, not to mention silky skin, things become rather surreal.

"These are not toys anymore," says Chung as the screwy signal scrambles his face again. "These are way beyond toys."

"So what are they?" I ask. For once, Chung pauses. "They are the next iteration of our attempt to re-create life.""