Last month, Apple gave more insights into the work of consumer robots through a research paper in which it is argued that properties such as expressive movements are the key to optimizing human-robot interaction. “Like most animals” the report begins, “people are very sensitive to movement and subtle changes in the movement. “
To illustrate his point of view, Apple Pixar pays homage to another company that was founded with the help of the late Steve Jobs. Since Pixar debuted for the first time in a short film of the same name from 1985, The Luxo Jr. Lamp has been a long -time mascot of the animation studio. Apple also selected a lamp for its research for its own “non -anthropomorphic” albild. After all, lamps have no obvious human properties, but they can be made to behave in a familiar way.
“So that robots interact more naturally with people”, the paper notes that “Robot movement design should also integrate expressive properties such as intent, attention and emotions in addition to traditional functional considerations such as fulfillment and time efficiency.”
In a video published in connection with the paper, some of these movements show. It is not surprising that they usually repeat the Pixar’s creation. This includes the same analogous parts, with the lampshade serves as a head while the arm stands for a neck.
The most fascinating part of the video with regard to potential productization is a user who questions the robot. In the simplest case, the unnamed lamp robot is a more kinetic version of a HomePod, Amazon Echo or another intelligent speaker. The person who faces the lamp asks a question and the robot answers with Siri’s voice.
A split screen video shows the importance of expression movements. When asked how the weather is outside, one version simply means the answer. The others wobble the head to look out the window as if the view that the robot can draw. It’s a simple example, but one that drives home how small movements use the Pureidolia of our lizard brain. The familiarity of expressive movements helps to establish a connection between man and object.
Apple’s research arrives when the company reports that the consumer robots increased its efforts before the planned publication of a more advanced Smart Home system. It is clear how these findings could be used to make a robot home centers more expressive. It is similar to the approach that Amazon chose with its Astro robot. However, the inclusion of a non-anthropomorphic form factor in research implies that the robot is even less humanoid than that of Amazon.
Rumors about the upcoming publication have described the hub as “a robot arm with an iPad”. It is easy to see how the lamp form factor can be used there. Of course, the Department of Apple’s consumer robots still seems to be the research phase. A lot can happen between now and then, from a greater shift of the form factor to a decision to draw the connector before the project started.
