According to the MIT Kismet project site, “Kismet is an expressive robotic creature with perceptual and motor modalities tailored to natural human communication channels. To facilitate a natural infant-caretaker interaction, the robot is equipped with visual, auditory, and proprioceptive sensory inputs. The motor outputs include vocalizations, facial expressions, and motor capabilities to adjust the gaze direction of the eyes and the orientation of the head. Note that these motor systems serve to steer the visual and auditory sensors to the source of the stimulus and can also be used to display communicative cues.”
It’s not Furby, that’s for sure.
View more information on this exciting advancement in robotic technology.
In similar news, Business 2.0 has a wonderful article on Six Technologies that will change the world. Project Kismet has already evolved into a new robot called Leonardo who according to the article is already in discussion to implement into special effects in movies. It’s reported that Stan Winston is highly interested in this advanced stage of robotics.
Now all they need to do is create a home version of Kismet or Leonardo.
