The tophat is quite dashing
August 18, 2013 1:53 PM   Subscribe

A slime mould expresses its emotions through a humming robotic face.
A human-like robot face has been hooked up so that its expressions are controlled by the electrical signals produced when yellow slime mould shies away from light, or moves eagerly towards food.
Via New Scientist.

From the article: this is part of an experiment to study the surprisingly complex internal lives of slime moulds. The robotic head is made by Hanson Robotics (previously), which has a number of other expressive robots on display at their Youtube channel. Slime moulds have been hooked to robots before, as in this study where a mould controls a small robot through its motion.

The primary investigator, Ella Gale, has a number of other interesting experiments tying organics and computers.
posted by codacorolla (20 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
That face...did they dredge it out of the bottom of the Uncanny Valley? How unsettling.
posted by Noms_Tiem at 2:01 PM on August 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


What's going on:

Gale placed slime mould on a forest of 64 micro electrodes, along with some oat flakes. As the mould moved across the electrodes towards the food, it produced electrical signals, which Gale converted into sound frequencies.

Gale then split the sound data into chunks. They gave each one a positive or negative label depending on whether the slime mould was moving towards food or recoiling from light – plus an "arousal" score based on the volume of the chunk.

Using a popular psychological model, the team was then able to assign each sound chunk an emotion – anger would be negative, high arousal, for example, while joy might be positive, low arousal.

So, what you're seeing is approach/avoidance behaviour of a slime mold graphed by analogy to human emotions on a robot face. I still have no idea what scientific purpose this serves, but it's interesting as art and as SCIENCE!
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 2:16 PM on August 18, 2013 [3 favorites]


Next we hook up the slime mould to the robot comedian to find out what slime mould humor is like.
posted by bleep at 2:21 PM on August 18, 2013 [3 favorites]


Possibly the most unsettling aspect of this brilliant abomination is that it actually inspired a worthy YouTube comment: "The creators obviously hate falling asleep and feeling good."
posted by maudlin at 2:29 PM on August 18, 2013 [4 favorites]


"The wife's got me eatin' these oat flakes for breakfast and she's tracking how I feel about it. Take my wife...please! OH!"
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 2:30 PM on August 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


Needs more Alfred E. Newman.
posted by Kinbote at 2:36 PM on August 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


That's creepy.
posted by acrasis at 2:37 PM on August 18, 2013


Isn't this how villain species in Dr. Who start out?
posted by strangely stunted trees at 2:40 PM on August 18, 2013 [3 favorites]


I have to agree, I do like the hat.
posted by blurker at 3:24 PM on August 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


This is what happens when you fund the Night Vale Society For The Promotion Of Science.
posted by The Whelk at 3:29 PM on August 18, 2013 [5 favorites]


Interesting, but yeah—this is way more art than science. Not that there's anything wrong with that; it's just weird that they frame it as "research".
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:30 PM on August 18, 2013 [3 favorites]


Yes, it's creepy and weird as implemented, but it's interesting to imagine how we as a species would treat other living creatures if their emotions were expressible this way.
posted by nev at 5:47 PM on August 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


We treat other living creatures like crap even though their emotions are pretty obvious. Even people, whose emotions should be as obvious as can be.
posted by bleep at 5:59 PM on August 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


So... the slime mold is preparing to audition for a small part at the community theater?
posted by FreelanceBureaucrat at 8:03 PM on August 18, 2013


I like how they translate the slime mold emotions to weird sounds and back for no apparent reason other than that it wasn't creepy enough already.
posted by what of it at 8:47 PM on August 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


how they translate the slime mold emotions to weird sounds and back

The slime mold doesn't have emotions. It doesn't even have a brain. We're being shown mold movements converted to sounds converted to robot facial expressions.

What's interesting about these slime molds is that they can do basic problem solving without a brain. That's a lot weirder than the robot face, fundamentally.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:25 PM on August 18, 2013 [4 favorites]


Wow, this robot face is the real-life embodiment of the "At first I was... but then I was" meme.
posted by Spatch at 11:32 PM on August 18, 2013


I'm impressed by the robotic face. Quite, actually.
posted by Goofyy at 12:04 AM on August 19, 2013


I still have no idea what scientific purpose this serves, but it's interesting as art and as SCIENCE!

If we ever meet a non-human, non-mammal, non-animalia intelligence, their emotions would be bizarre and incomprehensible, unless we translated it into the basic wants and needs of the organism, and built it from there. This allows an alien to smile at you, and the electrodes hooked to your own head will allow you to emit a culturally appropriate foul odor from your smellomatic-capable communicator in response when you smile back.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:24 AM on August 19, 2013


What's interesting about these slime molds is that they can do basic problem solving without a brain.

Soap film can do that too.
posted by ymgve at 8:41 AM on August 19, 2013 [1 favorite]


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