Entertainment robot
Encyclopedia
An entertainment robot is, as the name indicates, a robot that is not made for utilitarian use, as in production or domestic services, but for the sole subjective pleasure of the human it serves, usually the owner or his housemates, guests or clients. Robotics technologies are applied in many areas of culture and entertainment.
Expensive robotics are applied to the creation of narrative environments in commercial venues where servo motors, pneumatics
and hydraulic actuators are used to create movement with often preprogrammed responsive behaviors such as in Disneyland's haunted house ride.
Entertainment robots can also be seen in the context of media arts where artist have been employing advanced technologies to create environments and artistic expression also utilizing the actuators and sensor to allow their robots to react and change in relation to viewers.
The first commercial hit was, not surprisingly, modelled on the most popular pet: the canine.
These are some commercial models:
Robot dogs also appear fairly frequently in fiction compared to other forms of personal entertainment robots.
robots for utilitarian uses, there are some humanoid robots which aims at entertainment uses, such as Sony
's QRIO
and Wow Wee
's RoboSapien
. They are usually capable of some advanced features like Voice Recognition or Walking.
Nevertheless in the mind of some users the things can hold the loved place of a pet, as demonstrated by the fact that some even sleep with a metallic one instead of a plush cuddly toy.
In fact manufacturers even found it pays to produce a toy that is essentially designed to be nurtured, rather like an egg in some 'parenting experience simulations', as proven by the success of the Japanese Tamagotchi
.
Entertainment robots can take the form of interactive communications marketing tools at trade shows wherein promotional robots move about a trade show floor providing tongue and cheek interaction with trade show attendees in order to bring said attendees to a particular companies trade show booth. These promotional robots are hired by companies to entertain the inform trade show attendees about products ad services available at trade shows, example www.entertainmentrobots.com rents trade show robots.
Thus expensive robots are made for use as:
created Cysp 1 (Spatiodynamique Cybernétique), a robot and dancer working together to create an abstract sculpture and choreography with concrete music
by Pierre Henry
. These works could react to color, sound and light.
Survival Research Laboratories
, in San Francisco, California, creates large destructive robotic performances to roast
contemporary culture and express their distaste for the military-industrial complex
.
Emergent Systems is creating large-scale interactive art environments where robots are able to respond to humans and each other as they react and evolve in the robotic installations. /Autopoiesis (2000) was one such artificial life
work that allowed a series of robots constructed of grapevines to both act as individuals and a group. Augmented Fish Reality allowed Siamese fighting fish
to control their robots to meet across the gap of their glass fish bowls.
Intel Museum
hosts the A.I. driven interactive robot, ARTI, which is short for "artificial intelligence". This robot is considered to be a work of fine art and is capable of recognizing faces, understands speech and even teaches the museum guests about the history of the museum and its founders, Robert Noyes and Gordon Moore. ARTI's face is made out of an inanimate silicon wafer. See Entertainmentrobots.com for renting an Entertainment robots for your next Trade show Hospitality Suite, party Bar Mitzvah Bot Mitzvah
Expensive robotics are applied to the creation of narrative environments in commercial venues where servo motors, pneumatics
Pneumatics
Pneumatics is a branch of technology, which deals with the study and application of use of pressurized gas to effect mechanical motion.Pneumatic systems are extensively used in industry, where factories are commonly plumbed with compressed air or compressed inert gases...
and hydraulic actuators are used to create movement with often preprogrammed responsive behaviors such as in Disneyland's haunted house ride.
Entertainment robots can also be seen in the context of media arts where artist have been employing advanced technologies to create environments and artistic expression also utilizing the actuators and sensor to allow their robots to react and change in relation to viewers.
Toy robot
Relatively cheap, mass-produced entertainment robots are used as mechanical, sometimes interactive, toys which perform various tasks and tricks on command.The first commercial hit was, not surprisingly, modelled on the most popular pet: the canine.
Robot dog
Robot dogs as a fad have been produced with relatively little variation.These are some commercial models:
- Teksta a toy robot dog popular in the 1990s which was intended to be able to perform card tricks and respond to commands.
- AiboAIBOAIBO was one of several types of robotic pets designed and manufactured by Sony...
(The SonySony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
robot dog) - Poo-ChiPoo-ChiPoo-Chi is a robot dog, created by Tiger Toys after the success of the Furby. It is one of the first generations of robopet toys. Poo-Chi was originally designed by artist Samuel James Lloyd and manufactured by Sega Toys...
- Bow-wow
- I-CybieI-Cybiei-Cybie is a robotic pet that resembles a dog. It was manufactured by Silverlit Electronics. The i-Cybie robot responds to sound, touch, voice commands via remote control. Although i-Cybie does possess a limited amount of artificial intelligence, programming is not easily modifiable by the...
- iDogIDogThe iDog is a robot dog toy designed and manufactured by Sega Toys, marketed by Hasbro in the United States. iDog receives input from an external music source, such as a MP3 player, lighting up and "dancing" to the rhythm of the music...
(SegaSega, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's robot iPod music speaker) - Gupi, a robotic guinea pigGuinea pigThe guinea pig , also called the cavy, is a species of rodent belonging to the family Caviidae and the genus Cavia. Despite their common name, these animals are not in the pig family, nor are they from Guinea...
Robot dogs also appear fairly frequently in fiction compared to other forms of personal entertainment robots.
- K-9K-9 (Doctor Who)K-9, or K9, is the name of several fictional robotic canines in the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who, first appearing in 1977...
The DoctorDoctor (Doctor Who)The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
's portable computer and robot, from the BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
BBC TelevisionBBC TelevisionBBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
series Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. - Preston - Wendolene's robot dog from the 1995 animated Wallace and GromitWallace and GromitWallace and Gromit are the main characters in a series consisting of four British animated short films and a feature-length film by Nick Park of Aardman Animations...
film A Close ShaveA Close ShaveA Close Shave is a 1995 British animated film directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations in Bristol, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. It was his third half-hour short featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace and his quiet but intelligent dog Gromit, following 1989's A Grand Day Out,...
. - Goddard pet of Jimmy Neutron.
Humanoid entertainment robots
Despite those humanoidHumanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
robots for utilitarian uses, there are some humanoid robots which aims at entertainment uses, such as Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's QRIO
QRIO
QRIO was to be a bipedal humanoid entertainment robot developed and marketed by Sony to follow up on the success of its AIBO toy. QRIO stood approximately 0.6 m tall and weighed 7.3 kg...
and Wow Wee
Wow Wee
WowWee Group Limited, an Optimal Group company , is a Hong Kong-based company founded by Richard and Peter Yanofsky. Initially from Canada, the two brothers moved to Hong Kong to form the company in 1982 as an independent research & development and manufacturing outfit...
's RoboSapien
RoboSapien
RoboSapien is a toy-like biomorphic robot designed by Mark Tilden and produced by WowWee toys. The RoboSapien is preprogrammed with moves, and also can be controlled by an infrared remote control included with the toy, or by either a personal computer equipped with an infrared transmitter, and an...
. They are usually capable of some advanced features like Voice Recognition or Walking.
Substitute pets
While primitive robot toy models only execute standardized pre-programmed routines, sometimes little more than a wind-up toy could do, advancing technology allows for interaction with the user and/or other environmental stimuli (e.g. sensor-detected obstacles), thus somewhat resembling a live playmate, but which has no feelings and will thus always remain inferior to a pet, while more convenient as it may be (ab)used with impunity and has low maintenance.Nevertheless in the mind of some users the things can hold the loved place of a pet, as demonstrated by the fact that some even sleep with a metallic one instead of a plush cuddly toy.
In fact manufacturers even found it pays to produce a toy that is essentially designed to be nurtured, rather like an egg in some 'parenting experience simulations', as proven by the success of the Japanese Tamagotchi
Tamagotchi
The is a handheld digital pet, created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was first sold by Bandai in 1996 in Japan. As of 2010, over 76 million Tamagotchis have been sold world-wide...
.
Entertainment robots can take the form of interactive communications marketing tools at trade shows wherein promotional robots move about a trade show floor providing tongue and cheek interaction with trade show attendees in order to bring said attendees to a particular companies trade show booth. These promotional robots are hired by companies to entertain the inform trade show attendees about products ad services available at trade shows, example www.entertainmentrobots.com rents trade show robots.
Commercial show robots
As usual in the entertainment industry, capital and creativity are invested to try and top anything the private person can afford. In fact, from their owner's point of view this is a professional use, but the product is designed with as end use in mind its appreciation by the public.Thus expensive robots are made for use as:
- marketing tool - logically showed off by the manufacturers, to promote their products and technology, occasionally used in other promotional productions
- prop - inanimate performer or even artificial actor in show, TV and movie production (as the fictitious first toy robots, see above); as technology advances, some advanced robots can, often helped with other special effects, to make them seem what cannot (yet), even be significantly more than a cast extra, such as the Starwars 'droids' R2-D2 and C-3P0 in the Star WarsStar WarsStar Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
double trilogy (1977-2005) which have proved rather popular from the start.
Non-commercial art robots
In 1956, Nicolas SchöfferNicolas Schoffer
Nicolas Schöffer was a Hungarian-born French artist. He can be considered as the father of cybernetic art. He was born in Kalocsa, Hungary and resided in Paris from 1936 till his death in his Montmartre atelier in 1992. His career touched on painting, kinetic sculpture, architecture, urbanism,...
created Cysp 1 (Spatiodynamique Cybernétique), a robot and dancer working together to create an abstract sculpture and choreography with concrete music
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
by Pierre Henry
Pierre Henry
Pierre Henry is a French composer, considered a pioneer of the musique concrète genre of electronic music.-Biography:...
. These works could react to color, sound and light.
Survival Research Laboratories
Survival Research Laboratories
Survival Research Laboratories is a machine performance art group credited for pioneering the genre of large-scale machine performance. After about 30 years in San Francisco, California, SRL spent most of 2008 moving to Petaluma, California....
, in San Francisco, California, creates large destructive robotic performances to roast
Roast (comedy)
A roast is an event in which an individual is subjected to a public presentation of comedic insults, praise, outlandish true and untrue stories, and heartwarming tributes, the implication being that the roastee is able to take the jokes in good humor and not as serious criticism or insult, and...
contemporary culture and express their distaste for the military-industrial complex
Military-industrial complex
Military–industrial complex , or Military–industrial-congressional complex is a concept commonly used to refer to policy and monetary relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the industrial sector that supports them...
.
Emergent Systems is creating large-scale interactive art environments where robots are able to respond to humans and each other as they react and evolve in the robotic installations. /Autopoiesis (2000) was one such artificial life
Artificial life
Artificial life is a field of study and an associated art form which examine systems related to life, its processes, and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American computer scientist, in 1986...
work that allowed a series of robots constructed of grapevines to both act as individuals and a group. Augmented Fish Reality allowed Siamese fighting fish
Siamese fighting fish
The Siamese fighting fish , also known as the betta , is a popular species of freshwater aquarium fish. The name of the genus is derived from ikan bettah, taken from a local dialect of Malay...
to control their robots to meet across the gap of their glass fish bowls.
Intel Museum
Intel Museum
The Intel Museum located at Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara, California, has exhibits of Intel's products and history as well as semiconductor technology in general. The museum is open weekdays and Saturdays except holidays. It is open to the public with free admission.The museum was started...
hosts the A.I. driven interactive robot, ARTI, which is short for "artificial intelligence". This robot is considered to be a work of fine art and is capable of recognizing faces, understands speech and even teaches the museum guests about the history of the museum and its founders, Robert Noyes and Gordon Moore. ARTI's face is made out of an inanimate silicon wafer. See Entertainmentrobots.com for renting an Entertainment robots for your next Trade show Hospitality Suite, party Bar Mitzvah Bot Mitzvah
See also
- Domestic robotDomestic robotA domestic robot is a robot used for household chores. Thus far, there are only a few limited models, though science fiction writers and other speculators have suggested that they could become more common in the future...
- Digital petDigital petA digital pet is a type of artificial human companion. They are usually kept for companionship or enjoyment. People may keep a digital pet in lieu of a real pet....
- Humanoid robotHumanoid robotA humanoid robot or an anthropomorphic robot is a robot with its overall appearance, based on that of the human body, allowing interaction with made-for-human tools or environments. In general humanoid robots have a torso with a head, two arms and two legs, although some forms of humanoid robots...
- LudobotLudobotA ludobot is a type of artificial human companion: an entertainment robot, from Latin ludo and bot .Examples are battlebots, Sony Aibo, GoGo My So Real Walking Pup and so on....
- Robot dogRobot dogRobotic dogs are robots designed to resemble dogs in appearance and behavior, usually incorporating canine characteristics such as barking or tail-wagging...
- Virtual WomanVirtual WomanVirtual Woman is a software program that has elements of a chatbot, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, a video game, and a virtual human. It claims to be the oldest form of virtual life in existence, as it has been continuously running or in use since the late 1980s...