http://news.yam.com/afp/life/200807/20080730879953.html
科學家研發情感機器人 與人類互動第一步
法新社╱陳昶佑 2008-07-30 21:20
（法新社倫敦三十日電）英國科學家已研發出名為「靈犀機器人」（Heart Robot）的新型機器人，這是一種彈性塑膠玩偶，具有機器人的特性，透過程式設計的方式，讓機器人可對聲音、碰觸與附近的移動產生反應。
「靈犀機器人」因為身體左側可以看到一個紅色的「心」，故得其名，而它的心臟跳動頻率也不同；而這款機器人確實比令一款外型較不討喜的「iC六足機器人」（iC Hexapod）更受注目。
「iC六足機器人」是一種六腳生物，外型如同大型機器蜘蛛，當一名年輕女孩好奇看著它時，這台蜘蛛機器人頭部的迷你攝影機，便開始搜尋女孩的臉部，同時並伸展尖細的金屬節肢。
這台六足機器人身旁的電視螢幕，讓女孩可以同時了解這個機器人眼中的世界，當女孩更靠近時，這台機器人迅速轉頭作出反應，並且開始退縮。
不論是「靈犀機器人」還是「iC六足機器人」，都是「情感機器人」，透過程式設計讓機器人能對人類的情緒作出反應；這些機器人目前正在倫敦科學博物館的天線展館展出。
對於「iC六足機器人」的發明人丹頓而言，由於人類的日常生活越來越倚賴科技，因此創造出能識別並回應人類情緒的機器人，是必然的發展。
正在西英格蘭大學研究機器人學的麥高倫也說：「大家都知道人工智慧，但一般觀念認為，機器人是冷漠的，只會計算工業的自動化操作。」
設計出「靈犀機器人」的麥高倫說：「但過去十年來已經出現新的領域，機器人已經變得跟大家認為的完全相反。」
各方對於「靈犀機器人」的反應，就像是電影觀眾對於皮克斯工作室最新動畫電影「瓦利」中那個外型可愛、如同外星人的機器人的反應一樣；電影中的主角一邊清理人類文明在地球荒漠中留下的髒亂，一邊尋求真愛。
來自加拿大溫哥華的麥高倫說：「我們都是情感的動物，我們無法控制，我們已經忘記我們是如此輕易的身陷其中。」
他預測，也許有一天，在不太遙遠的未來，如果機器人經過程式設計，可以對於像是聲音緊張或臉部表情等提示作出反應，那麼人類與機器人的關係可能出現重大轉變。
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080730/sc_afp/lifestylebritaintechnologyrobots_080730081825;_ylt=AhA90nv7FUnmmdavBECxGMfPOrgF
Robo-relationships are virtually assured: British experts
by Phil Hazlewood
Wed Jul 30, 4:18 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - David McGoran cradles his baby in his arms. As he looks down into its big, dark eyes, it turns its head towards him and blinks, looking contented as it curls a bony white finger around his hand.
But the "baby" is not human. And it looks more like the evil Gollum from "The Lord Of The Rings" movies except in a hemp romper suit with cloth ears than a gurgly infant.
Meet Heart Robot, a flexible, plastic puppet with robotic features that has been programmed to react to sound, touch and nearby movements.
Heart Robot, so called because its red "heart" is visible on the left side of its body and beats at different rates, is certainly getting more attention than its menacing-looking counterpart, iC Hexapod, nearby.
The six-legged creature, which looks like a giant mechanical tarantula, flexes its spiny metal limbs as a miniature camera where the spider's head would be scrutinises the face of a young girl staring at it curiously.
On a television screen next to iC Hexapod, the girl gets a live, robot's eye view of what the machine is seeing, shifting its head in response to her movement and recoiling if she gets too close.
Both Heart Robot and iC Hexapod are "emotibots" -- robots programmed to react to human emotions -- on display this week at the Antenna Gallery at London's Science Museum.
For McGoran and iC Hexapod's inventor, Matt Denton, creating robots that recognise and respond to basic human emotions is a logical step as people's daily lives become increasingly dependent on technology.
"People know about artificial intelligence but the perception is that robots are cold and calculating industrial automatons," McGoran, who is studying robotics at the University of the West of England, told AFP.
"But over the last decade, there has been a new field where robots have become the opposite of that."
The reaction to Heart Robot is similar to that of cinema audiences to the star of the new Pixar animated film WALL-E, about a cute, ET-like robot looking for love as it clears up the mess of human civilisation on a deserted Earth.
"We're emotional machines. We can't help it. We forget how easy it is for us to be drawn in," said McGoran, from Vancouver, Canada, whose background is in puppetry and dance.
One day, perhaps in the not too distant future, he predicts, humankind's relationship to machines could be transformed if they are programmed to respond to prompts like vocal tension or facial expressions.
Denton agrees.
He runs micromagic systems, an animatronics firm based in Winchester, southern England, and has worked on blockbuster films like "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and music videos for British trip-hop band Massive Attack.
He developed iC Hexapod with face recognition software which is already available and used in some closed-circuit television systems as well as for car number plate recognition.
Greater interaction with robots is inevitable, he said, as technology changes human relationships through email, "virtual" worlds like Second Life or even social networking sites that often reduce actual face-to-face contact.
"I don't think it will be a substitute for human relationships but I certainly think people will form bonds with their robots" in a similar way to the care and attention some people lavish on their cars, he told AFP.
Humans cannot help but like WALL-E or even the box-like robots which are sent to Earth in director Douglas Turnbull's cult 1972 science fiction film "Silent Running", he said.
The same could be said for KITT, the "talking car" in the popular US television series "Knight Rider", or Japanese firm Honda's walking, astronaut-like robot, ASIMO.
California-based Ugobe's PLEO, a 1,000-dollar (637-euro, 503-pound) baby dinosaur toy programmed to display a range of emotions, including playfulness, fear and surprise, has been the talk of the robotics world.
"If they (robots) portray some kind of emotional response, people will become attached to them," he added.
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