Last week’s post about the Tokyo’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) showed just one of the many cool exhibits they had running this summer. Here’s a few more.
Paro, the Therapeutic Robot
First up, a robot created entirely to create an emotional bond with its owner. Paro the robotic seal has been around since 2003, there are now about 1,000 of them in use in Japan, and you can get one at Japan Trend Shop for just under $6,000. In the words of its creator, Takanori Shibata, (well, his organisation’s website)
Unlike industrial robots, “Mental Commitment Robots” are developed to interact with human beings and to make them feel emotional attachment to the robots. Rather than using objective measures, these robots trigger more subjective evaluations, evoking psychological impressions such as “cuteness” and comfort. Mental Commitment Robots are designed to provide 3 types of effects: psychological, such as relaxation and motivation, physiological, such as improvement in vital signs, and social effects such as instigating communication among inpatients and caregivers.
The striking thing about Paro is what its designers have done to make it feel… alive. It weighs the same as a baby, is warm (because of the machinery inside) and fuzzy. It responds to your voice and touch and its power cord looks like a pacifier. It makes plaintive noises, which instantly make you want to comfort it.
And yet, you know that it’s a robot, so it’s kinda creepy. The reactions of the girl in the video are a fine lesson on the effects of the uncanny valley .
Paro, Emotive Robot from Raphael D’Amico on Vimeo.
Even so, it’s fascinating as it addresses the emotive aspect of technology, which will become more and more important as smart machines continue to become ubiquitous. It may also be directly helpful to improve the brain function of elderly dementia patients, for example, and the principle of animal therapy – creating an emotional connection to empower the sick and needy – seems sound. It’s an interesting way of introducing this relationship into animal un-friendly environments like hospitals.
The Internet
A mechanical model of the internet. Each ball is a ‘bit’, and kids can send messages between five terminals in ‘packets’ of 16 balls. Fun, accurate and impressive in its scale. Video and pics below.
Interfaces
Just for the interaction designers reading this, this was a display where you could drive a virtual vehicle around using a steering wheel (of course), but also with a joystick, by tilting a mug (!), a keyboard or even with reins. Cute, and hopefully inspiring at least one kid a day to a future in the field.
Human body
The components of the human body. Nuff said.
The Story of Dark Matter
Another comic book visualisation of a complex topic: the genesis of the universe and whatever happened to those poor antimatter particles.
Ryota Kuwakubo’s Media Art
Ryota Kuwakubo creates pieces of interactive art that get you to think about how we interact with technology, and also how technology makes us interact with each other. Case in point the pixel videophones that change their expression based on the tone of your voice, the beach ball that makes a sound when you bounce it, the robotic eyes that suddenly give mundane objects a face and a personality, and most awesomely the strap-on tail that tries to help balance you. Mind-expanding.
Some pictures below, though as I didn’t get a chance to fully document his exhibits at the Miraikan it’s worth checking out the many other places which have reported on him.
