Sunday, October 12, 2008
Carnegie Mellon Robot Improv
Robot Snob: "Robotics has come a long way. The Toy Robots Initiative was established in January 1999. While it is no longer active, it was meant to make a closer relationship between robots and humans via education, toys, entertainment and art. Located at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, one of its projects was Robot Improv."
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7 comments:
The notion of robots having a goal and then being able to problem solve their way to that goal sounds really interesting when put in the context of actors improvising. I could see a wave of drama in the future that is done entirely by self-driven robots, but I doubt it would have a lasting impression.
I like the idea of combining the technology of robots with theatre for educational purposes. The Carnegie Mellon Robot Improv was very creative in how it combined high-tech robotics with humor and theatre, which is something that everybody can relate to.
The idea of robot actors on stage is an interesting, but almost scary one. I'm no ECE major but just how random is this impov really? At least the robot actors wouldn't miss their spikes.
Ok thats just bad###. It's projects like that, that open up the world of robotics to those unfamiliar with capabilities outside of the manufacturing aspects. Robotics has the power to effect our everyday lives and it's interesting to see how every day we close to the dreams of the sci-fi writers of the past.
I actually think it'd be cool to have a small show where humans interacted with robots. It'd be kindof like Avenue Q, only more CMU style, so we'd use robots and not puppets. This would be a great project to integrate the schools (CFA, CS and CIT) and itd be a fun project to work on. Not only would it give actors and production kids a new outlook/ new experience to work on, itd open the eyes of the CS/CIT kids to other ways of implementing their inovations.
Although robots are an amazing technology and are becoming more and more capable and thus more and more useful, I do not believe that robots can ever replace (or even come close to replacing) humans in theatre. Theatre is about displaying human emotion, and a robot would never be able to replicate that completely.
I am a little worried about the whole idea of robots making choices, even if they are acting choices. Sure the technology is developed for the right reasons, but there are a million things that these could be turned around for.
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