Speaking of Social Robots...

The fact that we humans have a predilection for sociable robots is pretty well mirrored in our science fiction creations. Rosie's smart-aleck comments on The Jetsons, Asimov's positronic robot brains, A.I.'s robotic version of Pinocchio--all of these point to our fantasies about humanistic robots that can think, feel, and act like us.

Social robots are far from ubiquitous in the US and Europe, where the extent of our everyday interactions with robotics ends with the occasional Roomba. But in Japan, where culture dictates that inanimate objects have spirit and personality, they're rapidly becoming commonplace. If the spread of social robots is indeed inevitable, what effect will they have on our own social expectations?

Robots that imitate speech and other human behaviors have been around for decades. My generation and those before it may recall Tamogatchis, the pocket-sized digital pets that "grow" when nurtured by their owners; and Furbies, fuzzy domestic robots programmed to "learn" English over time. While these toys provided a bit of youthful amazement through clever programming and simulation, they ultimately didn't carry much practical value.

Today's robots are considerably more useful. One of the Japanese robots, Paro, is fashioned after a baby harp seal and has been sold commercially since 2004. Paro is a therapeutic robot for use in nursing homes, mental health facilities, and hospitals to calm patients--essentially a robotic version of an animal-assisted therapy pet. As such, it's designed to be as cute as possible and responds to gentle stroking using tactile sensors. Paro can also simulate emotions, respond to specific sounds, and learn a patient's name.

A second robot, Pepper, is a little creepier and more advanced. About the size of a six-year-old, he's equipped with a 3D camera that can sense activity within a 10 ft range. Pepper's camera and other sensors allow him to read nonverbal social cues in order to detect emotions, granting him something like artificial empathy. While he's not as glamorous as controlled humanistic robots like Geminoid F, Pepper is the closest we've come to developing a robot that serves as a reliable companion by both semi-intelligently conversing and simulating understanding.

Pepper's been a fixture in many SoftBank Mobile stores in Japan as a greeter and passive salesperson. (It's no coincidence that Tokyo-based SoftBank owns Pepper's manufacturer, French company Aldebaran Robotics.) And he's been on sale commercially since February of this year for the astonishingly low price of 198,000 yen, or around $1,600.

Social robots have their detractors, such as Sherry Turkle, a psychology professor and head of MIT's Initiative on Technology and Self. Turkle has voiced concerns over the shallowness of robotic interaction, citing social robots as the latest in a string of technologies--including texting and social networking--that clean up messy and unpredictable human relationships to the degree that Her becomes reality sooner than we'd anticipated. (She also has a pretty interesting TED talk about how technology shapes our psychology and emotions.) Turkle's underlying thesis is that as we increasingly lean on technology for social stimulation, the less we expect from (or even want to be with) each other.

While Paro's doing well in therapeutic applications and Pepper's influence is growing, they give off the unsettling vibe of being not-quite-alive. And, as the video above shows, Pepper's conversation skills still lead to dodged questions and dead ends that would render it DOA in a Turing test. Now that I think of it, these traits might catapult him into a new career as a robot politician...

Image credit: Jennifer / CC BY-SA 2.0