Comments on: Robots learning facial expressions

By: snide

snide — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:04:21 +0000

While I certainly can’t disagree this is pretty typical for an AI project, the problem is that we learn to make facial expressions as a result of communicating emotions. There does not seem to be any correlation here between the facial and internal state, only learning expressions independent of anything. While that may or may not save some programming time, it still would require some human to come in and correlate the particular expressions with some symbolic representation for communication; hardly psychologically plausible.

By: damntech

damntech — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:09:28 +0000

I thought that was Joan Rivers.

By: Josiah

Josiah — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:22:18 +0000

It’s not a hack/fake really. It is actually a fair approximation of how we work (just badly described)…

Reinforcement learning usually approximates what goes on inside our brains to learn – this is learning in exactly the same way as us, but many orders of magnitude simpler. As said above, it’s probably a fairly straightforward application of a neural network. Neural nets can implement fuzzy logic, reasoning, decisions, etc, so it’s fair to say it’s using fairly complex AI technology. It’s just a bit unimaginative.

A more imaginative application of the tech has already been covered here:
http://hackaday.com/2008/08/12/autonomous-helicopter-learns-autorotation/

By: mark question

mark question — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 04:13:01 +0000

Man, I’m glad you mentioned that. The first thing I thought was, “Why does that robot look like a woman dressed as Einstein?”

By: Thomascpp

Thomascpp — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:05:53 +0000

@bort
time to call in derek smart. JK

By: F7

F7 — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:29:26 +0000

“Hello, I am uncomfortably androgynous Mark Twain. Sometimes a feel more like a man, and sometimes more like a woman. Will you help me explore my sexuality?”, the robot said with a provocative expression.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:25:41 +0000

OMG! It’s Helen Hunt!

By: spacecoyote

spacecoyote — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:59:31 +0000

it is technically an ai hack. by combining random actions with “rewards” (positive feedback, basically binary response…either this combination of actions is good or not) learning can be faked.

By: headbonk

headbonk — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:32:16 +0000

Too deep in the uncanny valley.

By: MJ

MJ — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:56:45 +0000

And this is relevant as a hack exactly how? This has been blogged by a half dozen sites already – hackaday doesn’t need this.

By: Bill ate a Cat

Bill ate a Cat — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:07:10 +0000

i’d hit it..

By: RobotGuy

RobotGuy — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:21:59 +0000

who rewarded the robot for making the “stoned” look on the left of the picture montage at the top of the page?

“what reward do you give a robot?”

chips, obviously.

By: Haku

Haku — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 02:42:57 +0000

I would hope that the people involved with identifying the different facial expressions don’t have Aspergers or anything on the Autistic spectrum. As someone with Aspergers I find reading body language & subtle facial expressions difficult.

By: MattieShoes

MattieShoes — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:41:25 +0000

It’s the painfully obvious wig with a feminine hairline.

By: doug

doug — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:19:36 +0000

I’m guessing it looks effeminate because of the slender neck and no perceptible adam’s apple.