Hala - A Bilingual,bicultural Roboceptionist

The computerized "Hala" will be able to translate not just language but nuance when dealing with multicultural visitors.

Researchers at the University of Arizona and Carnegie Mellon University are working to create a robot receptionist. What makes the effort novel is that the "roboceptionist" is bilingual and bicultural – a computer with a face and a natural language interface.

Hala wll be more flexible in dealing with language input from users. And that is where the University of Arizona comes in. We will provide both the language-specific and inter-language-related cultural capabilities so that this robot can be not just bilingual, but bicultural."

It is a bicultural robot is not one that merely switches between English and Arabic, Hala's current format, but also has both modes simultaneously active in order to spot and deal with potential cultural ambiguities and misunderstandings.

"You may speak Arabic, but you may choose to converse with the robot in English. "You may be conversing with the sensibility and the cultural background and the idioms from the Arabic world. This robot needs to understand both."

The phrase "week after week," for example, "I'm looking for the group that meets week after week" means "every week" in English. But in some Arabic dialects it can mean "every other week." Only a robot that is simultaneously facile with both lexicons can compute that this phrase is subject to cultural variation and can ask the user for clarification.

Culture affects not only the syntax and semantics of an interaction, but also the structure of the interaction, from the way greetings and closings are performed, to the form of the language used to politeness strategies.

Hala, who has a built-in backstory and personality, will adjust responses based on cues from the visitor, essentially building a model of the user throughout the interaction: Is this person high-status? Is this person American? Is this person in a hurry?

Most natural language parsers – computer translators that check for correct syntax – are trained on what is known as a Treebank corpora, or parsed sentences, generally from newswire text. News stories, however, do not usually contain questions, greetings or dialog.

The possible applications of this work for other human-computer interaction systems is also driving the research. Fong thinks the technology could be applicable to computer help-agents, multicultural information kiosks, tour guides and automated international call centers.








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Scientists Make Artificial Skin in Robotics

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a new technology that may help robots feel, give the sense of touch back to those with prosthetic limbs, and ultimately help robots do the dishes without breaking them (and while they're at it, maybe make a sandwich without turning it into land of the flatlanders).

Biotech wizards have engineered electronic skin that can sense touch, in a major step towards next-generation robotics and prosthetic limbs.

The lab-tested material responds to almost the same pressures as human skin and with the same speed, they reported in the British journal Nature Materials.

Important hurdles remain but the exploit is an advance towards replacing today's clumsy robots and artificial arms with smarter, touch-sensitive upgrades, they believe.

"Humans generally know how to hold a fragile egg without breaking it," said Ali Javey, an associate professor of computer sciences at the University of California at Berkeley, who led one of the research teams.

"If we ever wanted a robot that could unload the dishes, for instance, we'd want to make sure it doesn't break the wine glasses in the process. But we'd also want the robot to grip the stock pot without dropping it."

The "e-skin" has the capability of sensing not only touch but also pressure. Imagine a robot setting the table and being able to feel the amount of pressure to place on dinnerware. The possibilities are endless, and the benefit to mankind is enormous.

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AISoy 1: The World's First Robot With a Conscience

Spain has designed the world's first robot with its own "conscience" and "life", which will "entertain, teach and be a companion" to humans who purchase it.


The AISoy 1, which will go on sale in August, is the first social android developed by Spanish firm AISoy Robotics, which is now bringing its creation out of the laboratory.
 
The robot is capable of learning from experience and modifying "its behaviour, values and actions it can undertake at specific times," he said.


If you take two AISoy 1's and leave them in two different families, within two months they will be totally different because they will have had different experiences

Starting August, any family will be able to buy the robot, which is in the final phases of production, and it will be sold via the AISoy 1 website.

Although the price of the domestic robot has not yet been made public, the firm says that it will be 'less costly' than alternative prototypes developed by other firms.