[This short story from Forbes describes the clever use of tele-operation via VR to help artificially intelligent robots learn how to move like humans. The original story includes a 1:29 minute video, and for more information see the short interview with Peter Abbeel in Supply Chain Management Review and the November 2017 New York Times story it links to. –Matthew]

[Image: Robot performs human movements using VR. Photo Credit: Berkeley Robot Learning Lab.]

Robots Learn To Move Like Humans Using Virtual Reality

February 1, 2018
Andréa Morris, Contributor – I cover S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math).

The historic 1997 chess match left World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov, defeated by an IBM computer named Deep Blue. During the final tense moments, Kasparov held his head in his hands and breathed into his clenched fists. He suddenly stood, conceded, and walked away from the chess board, towards the audience, arms held out, palms facing up.… read more. “Robots learn to move like humans using virtual reality”

[Can a robot evoke medium-as-social-actor presence and effectively fill the role of TV news anchor? The original version of this story from the Daily Mail includes more pictures and two videos. For more details see a 14:21 minute video from The Guardian via YouTube. More information and a video about the weather robot Xiaoice is available from The Washington Post and Engadget covered the earlier robot news anchors Kodomoroid and Otonaroid. –Matthew]

Erica, the creepy robot that is so life-like she appears to ‘have a soul’, will replace a Japanese TV news anchor in April

• Roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro says she may get an ‘independent consciousness’
• Dr Ishiguro says he has been trying to get his creation on air since 2014
• Erica’s voice may also be used to talk to passengers in autonomous vehicles

By Phoebe Weston
30 January 2018

A creepy life-like robot called Erica is set to become a TV news anchor in Japan.… read more. “Robot Erica is set to become a TV news anchor in Japan”

[This story from The Register provides a nice overview of the many efforts to incorporate haptic sensation in virtual reality (and thereby increase presence for users); the original story includes videos for four of the technologies. –Matthew]

We won’t need to go outside if these haptic tricksters have their way

Simulating physical sensations is a growing frontier in VR tech

By David Matthews
26 Jan 2018

Haptic controllers are being touted as the next frontier in virtual reality. Having spent years obsessing over headset pixel counts, the VR industry is now playing with exoskeletal gloves, ultrasound waves and even electric shocks in order to simulate a sense of touch.

This focus is arguably long overdue: current VR controllers can only rumble, making them no more advanced than a PlayStation gamepad from two decades ago.

But to judge from some of the prototypes on display at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas – fount of a million breathless press releases – these devices seem very unlikely to see the inside of a living room soon.… read more. “Simulating physical sensations is a growing frontier in VR tech”

[Now you can replace your telepresence robot with a human surrogate wearing the ChameleonMask! This story is from Mental Floss, where the original includes a 30 second video; much more information is available from the project website. –Matthew]

‘Human Uber’ Lets a Surrogate Socialize For You

By Jay Serafino
February 1, 2018

Has the process of interacting with other human beings become too much for you, but you don’t have the heart to ditch your social obligations completely? Then you’ll be very interested in what virtual reality researcher Jun Rekimoto showed off at MIT Tech Review’s EmTech conference in Asia this week.

Called the “ChameleonMask,” this apparatus allows you to be a member of the outside world in spirit, all from the comfort of the couch you decided was more important than society. Basically, this telepresence helmet allows for a FaceTime-like experience that is piloted by a surrogate body.… read more. “Telepresence via ‘Human Uber’ lets a surrogate socialize for you”

[This is an interesting story from IFLScience about medium-as-social-actor presence in a Scotland grocery store. Our colleague David Benyon from Napier University is quoted in coverage from the Sunday Herald and a cultural explanation for how people responded to Fabio the robot is included (along with a short video) in a story in ZDNet. –Matthew]

Store Hires Robot To Help Out Customers, Robot Gets Fired For Scaring Customers Away

By James Felton
22 January 2018

Every few months there’s a story warning us that robots will take over our jobs within five, 10, or 20 years. You don’t get a lot of stories about robots taking over jobs right here and now. So what would happen if robots were hired now? Are they up to the task?

Enter Fabio, looking hopeful and ready to take the first step in his career.… read more. “Scotland grocery store tests robot to help customers for BBC’s “Six Robots and Us,” has to fire ‘him’”