Question of the Week #3
Apr 8 2009In my field (electrical engineering), I am exposed to many interesting things. One of my favorites is robotics. Robotics is the fusion of mechanical and electrical technologies which is recently been referred to as mechatronics. Now WSU doesn’t offer a mechatronics degree program (although they should), they do have a design course I and II by the title. This is a course of which I plan to attend next winter. Well, enough about me, let’s get back to the robots. As robotics technology becomes more advanced the products are getting closer and closer to having actual human attributes. This has developed an area of study that is attempting to determine if there is a limit as to how close we as humans are willing to comfortable accept the realism of robots. They have termed this dividing line the “Uncanny Valley”. So I will now ask you:
DO YOU FEEL THAT ROBOTS CAN BE TOO REAL FOR COMFORT?
Please take the time to watch some video footage to test your uneasiness towards the realistic features of some advanced robotic demonstrations.
Now the "Uncanny Valley" hypothesis was introduced by roboticist Mashashiro Mori in 1970 and is based on the study that the reaction towards human-like objects is increasingly positive and empathic to a certain point at which 
the reactions turns to a strong repulsion. The point in which the negative reaction appears between the life-like object and a real living person on a graphed response is known as the "Uncanny Valley". This can be notices in the computer animated games and movies as well like Polar Express and Beowulf. I have read that the movie Watchmen has crossed into the "valley" as well.
I would have to agree that there is a limit to whether I get "creeps" over watching a life-like image depending on how "real" it actually looks. While watching the robot Asian woman, I get freaked out at certain parts of the video depending on how real she looks or acts. At the end of the clip when her profile is shown I get the sense that she is real as can be and for a moment I feel freaked out. Another example that I agree with the hypothesis is that when I watched the Big Dog (very cool by the way) I found myself upset that the guy kicks the thing to demonstrate the balance. This is at the line of empathy towards the robot as the hypothesis states. Now, if the robot had a realistic head on it I would probably get freaked out by it because it would place it into the "valley". This is an interesting topic and I would like to hear your thoughts.
In the graph seen above I noticed a place where a bunraku dummy is mentioned just at the end of the "Uncanny Valley" is ending. I decided to see what this was and I have posted another video below in case you were wondering the same thing. It is actually fascinating to watch.
Until Next Time,
PEACE
April 14th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Okay, let me tell you about my robot problem. We have 2 groups, a transmitter and receiver team. I’m on the transmitter team. We are to send 2 frequencies together through a speaker (we have 4 frequencies and press 6 buttons for 6 moves). We’re sending 2 at once so we don’t accidentally trigger the robot to do things when we’re talking, etc. That was the project… Anyway, our instructor told us that we have to use 4 555 timers to generate our four frequencies and use the square wave design (actually we were given a different task for three weeks and she changed it last week or the week before…). So, we build it and are ready to test it with the receiver team. They have various filters and the square waves aren’t tripping the right ones. Anyway, my instructor (remember today is the last day of lab…) is told by another instructor that square waves won’t work TODAY. Remember, LAST DAY OF LAB. So, she tells us that the other professors would expect the circuits to work. Finals are next week and I haven’t cracked a book because I’m working on the project… If it would have worked with our original design (that we were told to use…); it was done last week. So, she doesn’t take responsibility for her mistake and makes us fix it. I, personally, don’t think that’s fair and that the other professors would make an exception for their mistake, but what do you think?
April 14th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
I think that you and your team need to protest to your professor first and plead your case and if that doesn’t work then push it up to the Dean. It sounds to me as if you may have an issue where the professor is not qualified enough to teach the course properly. I will not mention the college you attend since I don’t want to negatively impact its reputation but I will suggest that you transfer over to WSU and you will have a much better experience. Good luck with finals and get that book open despite the issue with the project.