Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Japan looks to a robot future
By HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago
TOKYO – At a university lab in a Tokyo suburb, engineering students are wiring a rubbery robot face to simulate six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust.
Hooked up to a database of words clustered by association, the robot – dubbed Kansei, or “sensibility” – responds to the word “war” by quivering in what looks like disgust and fear. It hears “love,” and its pink lips smile. “To live among people, robots need to handle complex social tasks,” said project leader Junichi Takeno of Meiji University. “Robots will need to work with emotions, to understand and eventually feel them. |