Emotive robots take lessons from toddlers

By Syantani Chatterjee

PASADENA, Calif., (Reuters Life!) - Keepon, a bright yellow, silicon-skinned, snowman-like robot can sway from side to side with joy, and bob up and down with excitement, much like toddlers.

It may not experience life in quite the same way as humans do, but it can express some of their emotions, however basic, breaking the stereotype of an unemotional robot.

The eight Keepons in existence take turns to interact with toddlers and, with the help of scientists, react to their movements and exaggerated facial expressions that come at that age.

"This robot can recognize a face with a welcoming expression, for example," said Hideki Kozima, Keepon's creator and senior research scientist at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology.

Since 2003, Keepon has been used to study how children develop social behavior.

"This robot is meant to help child psychologists understand how children develop socially at the age of two or three," Kozima said.

"They start communicating with each other, recognizing facial expressions, and developing feelings of empathy. We are trying to incorporate that kind of social behavioral understanding in robots."

Keepon has two tiny cameras for eyes and a microphone for a nose. The squishy robot, hand-high and almost empty inside, is mounted atop a barrel which conceals four motors and two circuit boards, the main robotic parts.