Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), who demoed a realistic-looking robot Einstein at the TED Conference last February, have now gone a step farther, infusing the
robot with the ability to improve its own expressions through learning.
Previously, the head of the robot–designed by Hanson Robotics–could only respond to the people around it using a variety of preprogrammed expressions. With 31 motors and a realistic skinlike material called Frubber, the head delighted and surprised TED conference goers last winter.
Inspired by how babies babble to learn words and expressions, the UCSD researchers have now given the Einstein-bot its own learning ability. Instead of being preprogrammed to make certain facial expressions, the UCSD robot experiments in front of a mirror, gradually learning how its motors control its facial expressions. In this way, it learns to re-create particular expressions. The group presented its paper last month at the 2009 IEEE Conference on Development and Learning.
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