Last month, Apple offered more information on its consumption robotics work via A research document This maintains that features such as expressive movements are essential to optimize human-robot interaction. “Like most animals”, begins the report, “humans are very sensitive to movement and subtle changes in movement”.
To illustrate its point, Apple pays tribute to Pixar, another company founded with the help of the late Steve Jobs. Since Pixar made its debut for the first time A eponymous short film from 1985The Luxo Jr. Lamp has been the long -standing mascot of the animation studio. For her research, Apple also chose a lamp for its own “non -anthropomorphic” example. After all, lamps do not have obvious human features, but they can be made to behave in a familiar manner.
“For robots to interact more naturally with humans,” notes the article, “the design of the movement of robots should also integrate expressive qualities, such as intention, attention and emotions, alongside functional considerations traditional such as the accomplishment of tasks and the effectiveness of time. ”
A video Released in conjunction with the article presents some of these movements. Unsurprisingly, they mostly make those of the creation of Pixar. This includes the same similar parts, with the lampshade serving as a head, while the arm is held for a neck.
The most intriguing part of the video, with regard to potential productization, questions the robot. In its simplest, the nameless lamp robot works as a more kinetic version of a HomePod, Amazon Echo or another intelligent speaker. The person facing the lamp requires a request and the robot responds from Siri’s voice.
A shared screen video highlights the importance of expressive movements. Questioned on what time he does outside, a version simply indicates the answer. The other takes the head to look out the window as if the view offers an overview on which the robot can draw. This is a simple example, but the one who explains at home how small movements exploit in our lizard brain pareidolia. The familiarity of expressive movements helps to form a link between man and object.
Apple’s research arrives that the company would increase its robotics efforts to consumption before the expected release of a More advanced intelligent house system. It is clear how these learnings could be applied to make a center of the robotic house more expressive. It is similar to the approach that Amazon adopted with his Astro robot. However, the inclusion of a non -anthropomorphic form factor in research implies that the robot can be even less humanoid than Amazon.
The rumors surrounding the upcoming version described the hub as “a robot arm with an attached iPad”. It is easy to see how the lamp shape factor could be applied to it. Of course, the Division of Apple’s consumers’ robotics always seems to be the research phase. Many can occur by then, a major change in form factor to a decision to get rid of the project before launch.
