Keepon
Encyclopedia
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology is Japan's national research institute for information and communications...
(NICT) in Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
, Japan. Keepon has four motors, a rubber skin, two cameras in its eyes, and a microphone in its nose.
In the context of Kozima's "Infanoid" project, Keepon has been used to study the underlying mechanisms of social communication. Its simple appearance and behavior are intended to help children, even those with developmental disorders such as autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
, to understand its attentive and emotive actions. The robot, usually under the control of a teleoperator, has interacted with children in schools and remedial centers for developmental disorders since 2003.
Keepon achieved popularity with the March 2007 YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
release of a video in which the robot was depicted dancing to the song "I Turn My Camera On" by the band Spoon
Spoon (band)
Spoon is an American rock band formed in Austin, Texas. The band is composed of Britt Daniel ; Jim Eno ; Rob Pope and Eric Harvey .-History:...
. The video was made by Marek Michalowski of Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
in Pittsburgh, US, after programming Keepon to dance to musical rhythms. Keepon was subsequently featured in a WIRED Magazine
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
-produced music video for Spoon
Spoon (band)
Spoon is an American rock band formed in Austin, Texas. The band is composed of Britt Daniel ; Jim Eno ; Rob Pope and Eric Harvey .-History:...
's "Don't You Evah."
Keepon's awards have included the €10,000 Robots at Play Prize (Odense, Denmark, August 2007); the Best Interactive Demonstration Award at RO-MAN (Jeju, Korea, August 2007); and the First Grand Challenge in Human-Robot Interaction at ICRA (Pasadena, CA, May 2008). Keepon appeared at WIRED NextFest in September 2007 in Los Angeles, CA and September/October 2008 in Chicago, IL. Keepon was a special performer at the 2008 Webby Awards.
Keepon is currently available for purchase at $30,000, though a price drop is speculated after simpler mechanisms are developed. Furthermore, in response to Keepon's online popularity, a toy version, called the My Keepon, was announced in January 2010 by Wow! Stuff in conjunction with BeatBots. The toy aims to "[capture] the essence of the Keepon character", including its reactivity to touch and ability to dance to music. It became available for order in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The 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...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in fall 2011, and began shipping in late October 2011. The makers say part of the profits from My Keepon sales "will go towards subsidizing and donating BeatBots' research-grade robots to therapists and researchers."
Further reading
- Kozima, Hideki; Cocoro Nakagawa, Cocoro; Yano, Hiroyuki, "Can a robot empathize with people?", Artificial Life and Robotics, Springer Japan, Volume 8, Number 1 / September, 2004, pp. 83–88.
- Kozima, H.; Nakagawa, C., "A robot in a playroom with preschool children: Longitudinal field practice", Robot and Human interactive Communication, 2007. RO-MAN 2007. The 16th IEEE International Symposium on 26-29 Aug. 2007, pp. 1058–1059.
External links
- Keepons.co.uk - everything about Mykeepon
- BeatBots: Robots with Rhythm
- Hideki Kozima's home page - Miyagi UniversityMiyagi Universityis a public university located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Established in 1997, the university has currently two campuses in Miyagi prefecture, after merging with Miyagi Agricultural College in 2005. The university is often called "MYU" or "Miya-Dai" for an abbreviation.- History :In 1997, Miyagi...
- Marek Michalowski's home page
- Keepon's FaceBook page
- YouTube - Keepon's attentive and emotive actions
- YouTube - Keepon dancing to Spoon's "I Turn My Camera On"
- YouTube - Keepon dancing to Spoon's "Don't You Evah"
- YouTube - Keepon: Friend or Foe?
- YouTube - Keepon Auditioning
- "Robots with rhythm could rock your world", by Celeste Biever, New ScientistNew ScientistNew Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
news service, 22 March 2007.