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Lecturers: Luke Franzke & Florian Bruggisser

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The topic of Anthopormism in Robotics is as old as the field itself. Can and should a robot look and behave like us? Can interactions between human and machine be more powerful if we can empathise with the machine because of it's a human-like behaviour? We are social animals, and a large portion of our brain is dedicated to social tasks, from recognising emotions to predicting the thoughts and intentions of people around us. It, therefore, makes sense that we exploit these capabilities when designing interactions. But how might everyday interactive devices be improved by anthropomorphic characteristics? Would we be more likely to partake in sustainable consumerism of electronics if the devices were more sympathetic? Could we be healthier if our Fitbit got angry with us? This year's Physical Computing major project will attempt to answer some of these questions, while physically prototyping interactive devices with empathetic qualities and anthropomorphic behaviours. 

There have been numerous attempts to make humanoid robots (both in fiction and reality), which inevitably lead to the uncanny valley phenomena. Yet, distinctly non-human forms can be highly evocative of human qualities. Simple geometric forms can convey agency and complex behaviours through motion alone (Heider and Simmel 1944). For this reason, we will focus on human-like behaviour being conveyed through motion, rather than form.

Extended description:

There are three common explanations for our tendency to anthropomorphize things,   

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But how might everyday interactive devices be improved by anthropomorphic characteristics? Would we be more likely to partake in sustainable consumerism of electronics if the devices were more sympathetic? Could we be healthier if our Fitbit got angry with us? This year's Physical Computing project will attempt to answer some of these questions, while physically prototyping interactive devices with empathetic qualities and anthropomorphic behaviours. Will will focus on the use of simple electromechanical outputs to achieve these results. 

Topics Readings:

"Is That Car Smiling at Me? Schema Congruity as a Basis for Evaluating Anthropomorphized Products" 

Topics Readings:

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.60.297&rep=rep1&type=pdf

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