The MeBot is a semi-autonomous robotic avatar that gives a person a richer way to interact remotely with an audience than is allowed with phone and video conferencing. The robot was designed with an emphasis on being able to convey the non-verbal channels of social communication. That is, it is able to communicate some body posture, a wide range of head movement and very expressive hand gestures. It takes advantage of the current advanced technology in wireless communications and the ever-expanding capabilities of mobile devices. MeBot is a push toward a future where remote presence can be achieved easily in a way that saves traveling time but still achieves the same experience as “being there”.
We conducted an experiment that evaluated how people perceived a robot-mediated operator differently when they used a static telerobot versus a physically embodied and expressive telerobot. Results showed that people felt more psychologically involved and more engaged in the interaction with their remote partners when they were embodied in a socially expressive way. People also reported much higher levels of cooperation both on their own part and their partners as well as a higher score for enjoyment in the interaction.
This work received a best paper nomination at HRI2010
Related publications:
- Sigurdur Orn Adalgeirsson. Mebot, a Robotic Platform for Socially Embodied Telepresence. In Proceedings of the fifth ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI-10). ACM/IEEE International, 2010. [Best paper nomination]
Link
In printed media:
- FrankfurterRundschau [March 30th, 2010]
In on-line media:
- Engadget – MIT’s MeBot makes telerobotics fun again
- BotJunkie – MeBot Brings Intuitive Movement To Telepresence
- CNET Crave – Robot avatar MeBot gives you wriggling bug body
- Hizook – MeBot: An Affective Teleconferencing Robot from MIT Being Presented at HRI 2010
- Coolest Gadgets – Mebot lets you talk to the little one on your desk
- Golem.de – Mebot – der gestikulierende Telepräsenzroboter
- DVice – MeBot, MIT’s most expressive telepresence robot yet
- RobotShop – MeBot a telepresence mini robot
- Hacking the Universe – MeBot
- Singularity Hub – MeBot, the Telepresence Robot With Body Language
- Ubergizmo – MeBot telepresence robot
- Technabob – MIT’s mebot is telepresence at its best?
- Technovelgy – MeBot Robot Avatar Telepresence
- Plastic Pals – MeBot
Þetta er frábært Siggi!! Minnir mig á vélmennið í myndinni sem kom út í fyrra, vill ekki segja nafnið á svona opinberri síðu en það byrjar á tvöfallt v og endar á e sem hljómar eins og í! En ég er ekkert smá sáttur með að hafa séð þessa síðu og virkilega sjá hvað þú ert að bardúsa þarna úti, alveg frábært ég er alveg “amazed” með það hversu magnað þetta er allt saman hjá þér, stendur þig rosalega vel, sýnist mér.
Meiriháttar verkefni! Maður fyllist stolti – merki okkar greinilega haldið á lofti
G’day
I have a different view on this and I really hoped I had the time right now. I’ll go ahead and subscribe and when I have a chance I’ll leave a reply. Cool web log by the way. I’m trying to get one going but my programming friend is slacking off on me. Thanks again for your post – Joy. Ciao!
Takk Hannes og Gísli ! Kann vel að meta það
I cannot understand why people like this robotic mechanism this much.I really don’t like it personally. I think that human is creating himself the weapon against the human society. I might be wrong but this is my thinking and for sure i will not buy any robot mechanics software at least in my house.
Youre on top of the game. Thnkas for sharing.