Robots as Social Companions

Posted 23 Jan 2006 at 23:44 UTC by steve

A University of Hertfordshire press release describes a two-hour BBC radio program that will be broadcast on Jan 25 at 4:15PM UTC featuring details about Hertfordshire's ongoing study of human-robot interaction. Among the projects in the study are Cogniron, which involves placing a specially designed robot into a normal home environment where psychologists can study the human's perception of the robot as well as their social interactions with it. Other projects include Robot-Cub, which focuses on developing an open architecture for cognitive function in robots; and AuRoRA, which is working on a robotic platform as a remedial tool for teaching interaction skills to autistic children. Users of the proprietary Real player software may be able to listen to the program live using the link on the BBC 3 Counties Local Radio page