Robotic Cell Phones Can Express Human-like Emotions

Scientists at Simon Fraser University's School of Interactive Arts and Technology have created a robotic cell phone family that can walk, dance and express human-like emotions.

One member of the family, Cally, is a physically active robotic cell phone that stands 16 centimeters high. She walks, dances and mimics human gestures. During video calls, she also can track human faces to keep the camera trained on the user even when he or she moves around.



Callo stands 23 centimeters and is more emotionally sophisticated than Cally.

Callo’s viewing screen registers text-messaged emoticons as human-like facial expressions. His robotic shoulders can slump and his arms can wave frantically if he’s interactively triggered to respond to an emotional crisis.

The goal of this project is to explore ways in which we can help social robotic products, such as GPS, interactively communicate with people and build long-term intimacy with them, according to the researchers.

The technology is certainly cool, but I don't want to be socially intimate with my Garmin.