Comments on: Dancing robots as educational toys

Dancing robots as educational toys

mkb — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:05:08 -0800

Keepon and Roillo are two robots designed for non-verbal interaction with children. Keepon is shaped approximately like a snowman, with two cameras for eyes and a microphone for a nose. After one bar of music, he starts getting down in his robotic-type fashion. (two videos that need flash are the attraction here)

By: empath

empath — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:27:32 -0800

OOOOH I want! I want that in the dj booth of every gig I have.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:30:14 -0800

That is one funky robot.

By: empath

empath — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:33:36 -0800

Seriously, it seems like it is having just the best time. I absolutely love it. If they put that in stores tomorrow they'd sell a million of them.

By: eriko

eriko — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:49:59 -0800

That's just wrong. I love it.

By: Terminal Verbosity

Terminal Verbosity — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:50:23 -0800

The drum video was unimpressive. The Spoon video rocked my world. I'd swear that little thing is actually feeling the beat. Stupid little yellow piece of shit. /jealous 'cause he can't feel the beat

By: phaedon

phaedon — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:56:43 -0800

Now that's what i call a sockpuppet.

By: tula

tula — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:20:03 -0800

The drum one is pretty bad--the thing isn't moving to the beat. The spoon is much better, but all in all I think Soul Train is a much better way to learn to dance.

By: tickingclock

tickingclock — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:22:25 -0800

Oh, awesome! I went to a conference in early February, where Hideki Kozima talked about his research with Keepon. He talked about using Keepon to help study the behaviour of autistic children, and presented a neat hypothesis about how autistic children are inundated by the sheer number of social signals to decode, becoming unwilling to interact with others as a result. In comparison, Keepon has a very limited number of actions (tracking gaze, bouncing up and down, tilting its head side-to-side, vibrating), so it may be able to help autistic children get the kind of social interaction that they may need. We got to see some video clips of children, both autistic and non-autistic, interacting with Keepon. My favourite clip? The one where the non-autistic boys would beat on Keepon and play with it aggressively, whereas the girls would pet it and try to take care of it ("Boys are like that..."). Very endearing.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:36:19 -0800

White people play with their dancing robots like this and black people pay with their dancing robots like this.

By: peep

peep — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:21:39 -0800

If they put that in stores tomorrow they'd sell a million of them. For sure. Keepon could totally be this year's hot Christmas toy.

By: Freen

Freen — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:45:12 -0800

Lookout! Robots Got the Boogy! I want one more than I want my pancreas.

By: infinitywaltz

infinitywaltz — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:14:02 -0800

Have not yet watched video, but already know I want one. /frequently has crushes on robot.

By: bshort

bshort — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:08:11 -0800

CUTEST. ROBOT. EVER.