Apparently, we here at Speech Tech are not the only ones obsessed with Robots; the New York Times has been doing a series of articles focused on technology that has included a lot of robots: dancing robots, talking robot heads, teaching robots and more. One thing at a time though, since today we’re going to focus on teaching robots. Thanks NYT, we knew we weren’t alone.

According to the article, robots are used to teach everything from basic social behavior to languages. Most of these robots fall into the less creepy looking, i.e. not rubberized valley ala uncanny humanoid. In fact, it does seem that more often now robots are falling into a kind of Wall-e category: robots that are designed to clearly be recognized as Robots, but still have some kind of “face” and/or possess the ability to present an expression. In other words, they’re kind of cute.

My favorite of the new robots the NYT reported on was the Engkey, which is currently used to teach South Korean kids English. Engkey, is a squat robot that looks a little like a futuristic Russian nesting doll.

Part of the reason EngKey has come into use is because there is a dearth of native English-Speaking teachers available. As a  former teacher (who was actually recruited by Korea to teach English but couldn’t relocate), I was especially interested in the the idea of robots being used to teach students, especially because its so hard sometimes to get student attention, and I imagine a robot would get most people’s attention, at least at first. It certainly beats the lame math “games” I played in the eighties which were presented on “toy” robots or other tech systems, meant to make math fun. Yeah right.

Anyhow, the Engkey is speech-enabled, so it can respond to students, telling them if their accent needs work or if they spoke a phrase correctly or not. It can also spin around and give students a high five while showing images of stars on its screen.

Of course people are worried that robots won’t be able to teach students as well as real teachers, though robots certainly won’t run out of patience, form unions or demand to be paid more.  At least, not yet.

Photo credit: Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times

I have to admit speechheads, I was a bit of a skeptic when I saw Paro, the robot baby seal on a tv show, but the article and video in the NY times may have changed my mind. While in my last post, I was being a bit facetious about cuddling with the robot baby (you can’t really cuddle with it, though it is supposed to inspire cuddly feelings in you), Paro is really designed to be cuddly, and unlike my cat Oscar, who likes to express his complaints with plaintive meowing or jumping on my head while I’m sleeping, Paro doesn’t need any thing from its owner (well, except about six grand to get him in the first place). Either way, according to the Times Paro is catching on at nursing homes as a form of ‘robot therapy.’  The aspect of Paro that does seem to make him uniquely different from just another stuffed animal–according to the article, they were tried but didn’t achieve the same calming affect)–is that Paro responds to your speech, can learn to respond to names and will try to ‘adapt’ his behavior–for example, if it is petted a certain way, it will try to move in the same way to be petted again. Alternately, if you bat poor Paro away, he will try to avoid moving that way again.

And for your further amusement, dearest speechheads, here is a comparison list of some things you could do with  my cat versus Paro. Which would you get?

Going to a Sushi Restaurant

Oscar: would beg for sushi, be denied, ultimately try to “hunt” whatever fish are in the decorative tank, knock it over,  causing you thousands of dollars in repairs/ and you are banned for life from the restaurant.

Paro: as seen in a you tube video, paro sits on the counter watching you eat, makes other customers interested in you.  You make new friends, even if they might think you’re a little odd.

Watching  a Movie:

Oscar: demands you play fetch, meaning, you throw–a ball, a tiny stuffed mouse, etc.–he runs to get it and then meows for you to retrieve it and throw it again. In other words, you fetch.

Paro: Does not know what “fetch” is.

Sleeping in the Early Wee hours of the Morning

Oscar: wants to let you know there are birds outside. He does this by meowing directly into your ear.

Paro: “sleeps” peacefully beside you and remains motionless.

Playing in the Backyard

Oscar: will defend his territory by howling and poofing out his tail

Paro: will scare away other animals simply by mewing strangely.

But, as far as cuteness goes, well, I think Oscar might be our winner hands down. But, then again, I’m biased.