Page 139 - Modern Robotics Building Versatile Macines

SOCIABLE ROBOTS 119

turns playing with the eraser. Breazeal realized that there was noth-
ing in the robot’s programming that told it about taking turns. This
behavior was apparently emerging out of the interaction between the
increasingly sophisticated robot and its human partner.
For her doctoral research, Breazeal decided to explore further how
a human and a robot might be able to interact using social behavior
such as turn-taking. To do so, she again looked toward the human
infant as a model. She decided to focus on the key ways in which par-
ents and babies communicate: attention, facial expressions, and vocal-
ization. She designed a smaller robot that would be more childlike and
named it Kismet, from a Turkish word meaning fate or fortune.

Seeing, Hearing, “Speaking”

To many people, the phrase “humanoid robot” conjures up a
Hollywood or Disney animatronic replication of a person, with real-
istic facial features. Kismet, though, looked a bit like the alien from
the movie ET. The robot was essentially a head without arms or
legs. With big eyes (including exaggerated eyebrows), pink ears that
could twist, and bendable surgical tubing for lips, Kismet’s “body
language” conveyed a kind of brush-stroked essence of response and
emotion. Kismet had a variety of hardware and software features
that supported its interaction with humans.
Like Cogs, Kismet’s camera “eyes” functioned much like the
human eye. The vision system, though, was more sophisticated than
that in the earlier robot. Kismet looked for colorful objects, which
were considered to be toys for potential play activities. An even
higher priority was given to potential playmates, who were recog-
nized by certain facial features (such as eyes) as well as the presence
of flesh tones.
Although Kismet was essentially only a head, the head could tilt
forward, conveying interest in a person or thing. To draw people
to show interest in return, Breazeal covered Kismet’s camera lenses
with humanlike artificial eyes, complete with false eyelashes. On the
other hand, if a person got too close to the robot (which made vision
difficult), Kismet would pull back, conveying body language similar
to “you are invading my personal space.”