OMG - The New Kid In Class Is A . . . Robot!
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On February 5th, 2013, the fifth grade students at Japan's Higashihikari Elementary School welcomed a new student. However, unlike other newcomers, he was not shy and seemed to instantly recognize all 119 kids by their names. Impressed? You will be even more so, when you find out that Robovie is not human but a robot, masquerading as a fifth-grade student!
Developed by Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, the 1.2 meter (3.9 feet) tall student is part of a 14-month experiment to test if robots can gradually learn to interact naturally and assimilate with a group of people.
While the company has previously conducted several experiments in various settings, this is the longest duration by far, and is all part of their bigger vision of making robots household fixtures, previous attempts at which, have been quite unsuccessful. This time around they decided to pick a school because it allows the bot to gather and hopefully incorporate copious amounts of data from the active and curious kids around him.
And though Robovie's amazing memory may have impressed you, he does have an unfair advantage - Though his daily conversation level has been restricted to that of a five-year old in the hope that he will develop his vocabulary by interacting with the fifth graders, he was preprogrammed with the facial photos and voiceprints of all 119 fifth graders and teachers, as well as, the contents of the entire fifth grade science text book. Nonetheless, he impressed the class by answering correctly that a wound up copper wire could also be called a copper coil, prompting a fellow student to quip 'It's smarter than me'!
While still early, Robovie is doing quite well on the social front too - Not only did he acknowledge all the students in his grade but after class, also shook hands with the sixth graders and was even polite enough to answer all their questions, just like any other new student would do. But then, this is not the first time Robovie (or another version of him) has been around humans. In the past he has been assigned to many tasks including helping the elderly shop for groceries.
Resources: gizmag.com,mainichi.Jp
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885 Comments
- K.h. And t.n,over 12 yearsThis new robot developed by Japan looks incredible, but there will be some major changes in the design and format. Hopefully this will be available to the U.S.A. This robot can be very smart when its gets used to the school.
- HSO BA CMover 12 yearsThis article was very interesting, and I didn't know they had the technology for this kind. I hope the robot does not cause problems. I wish our school has this that would be amazing. Everyone thought this was cool. Although it is great a robot would be a distraction why couldn't they make it look like a human.
- nah-nahover 12 yearsthe pics looks real nice
- nah-nahover 12 yearsi want a robot and this video seems so cool!
- C.M, B.Aover 12 yearsWe Think this is really weird. It is also really cool how fast the robot can remember the names and how fast the robot can be like a human. It is also weird that the kids don't really care.
- Tae.W. Cur. Pover 12 yearsI believe that this is quite impressing and amazingly smart. I do expect this from Japan and China, they are very smart in science and technology. i have a question though. If robots were to succeed in this, what would be the inventors goal?I know they are trying to see if a robot can interact appropriately but when it does what will their next goal be? This still fascinates my mind but something does seem to be missing in this scientific robot.
- HSO BA CMover 12 yearsI thought this was really interesting and cool more cool and really really cool
- A.S D.G J.Fover 12 yearsWe wonder if they can have a screen and a child is at home if he can be part of the class but at home? If they can it would be better they would be more focused because kids love to know they are using technology.
- billybobbyover 12 yearsi want a robot too!!! :))
- Tyler b. Jay W.over 12 yearsJapan is known for a lot of weird stuff, but this is probably the most pointless thing they made. why put a robot into a classroom its a major distraction.