Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Robot Vacuums Need Personalities!
What is the ideal personality for a robotic vacuum cleaner? A recent study performed by researchers from Delft University of Technology and Philips Research in the Netherlands made some interesting discoveries.
(Robotic vacuum cleaners need personalities)
[A robot vacuum cleaner] exhibits autonomous behavior and it moves around our homes and affects our daily lives. This is very different from conventional, non-robotic vacuum cleaners. People are no longer in full control of what the product is doing, where and when. People need to understand and trust the robot vacuum cleaner. Crucial for the user experience and acceptance of the product is the design of appropriate interaction between human and robot.An accepted and widely used model that describes personality is the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality, also referred to as the Big Five. This model organizes personality traits in terms of five basic dimensions: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness... But in their daily lives, people do not only use human personality characteristics to describe people, they also use these to describe products and interaction with products. Or more specific: interaction with computers, robots and—as we have seen—even robot vacuum cleaners.
We discuss the most relevant results with respect to the desired personality here. The [study] participants desired a calm robot vacuum cleaner (6 participants out of 6); it should express that it is in control of the situation.
Furthermore, they wanted the robot vacuum cleaner to be cooperative in nature (5 participants). All of them desired an efficient robot vacuum cleaner (6 participants). They wanted it to like routines (5 participants), as vacuuming is very much a routine job. The participants desired a polite robot vacuum cleaner (5 participants), as well as one that behaves in a systematic way (6).
Douglas Adams wrote about this in his 1979 classic The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He called them "Genuine People Personalities":
“Ghastly,” continued Marvin, “it all is. Absolutely ghastly. Just don't even talk about it. Look at this door,” he said, stepping through it. The irony circuits cut into his voice modulator as he mimicked the style of the sales brochure. “All the doors in this spaceship have a cheerful and sunny disposition. It is their pleasure to open for you, and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done.”As the door closed behind them it became apparent that it did indeed have a satisfied sigh-like quality to it. “Hummmmmmmyummmmmmm ah!” it said...
"Thank you the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation," said Marvin, and trudged desolately up the gleaming curved corridor that stretched out before them. "Let's build robots with Genuine People Personalities," they said. So they tried it out with me. I'm a personality prototype. You can tell, can't you?"
(Read more about Adams' Genuine People Personalities)
From Robot Vacuum Cleaner Personality and Behavio via Spectrum.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/25/2011)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Robotics ")
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.' - Aldo Giunta, 1957
Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said. - Pournelle and Niven, 1981.
Robot Hand Creeps Along, Separate From It's Owner
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...' - Philip K. Dick, 1955.
Korean Exoskeleton Suit F1 Helps You Put It On
'Better late than never.'
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.
'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
Robot Hand Creeps Along, Separate From It's Owner
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
Korean Exoskeleton Suit F1 Helps You Put It On
'Better late than never.'
Have AI Researchers Given Up On 'Bio-Babies'?
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets
'The first revelation of the new Soviet bore-pellets.'
'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
