Add as a preferred source on Google


Indiana/Purdue Prof Dedicated to Making Helper Droids

  • By Paul McCloskey
  • 06/26/07
A professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) is working on creating life-like androids to study human behavior and social interaction, with an eye toward using them as social workers and companions for the elderly.

Karl MacDorman is dedicated to making an android so real it passes the "uncanny valley," he said, the point at which androids no longer repel people in close proximity.

MacDorman said Asians, particularly the Japanese, seem more open to the use of android applications, such as receptionists and museum guides, patient care, and as companions for the elderly, than almost any other group of people. Japanese nursing homes are already using realistic-looking robotic pets as companions for residents. The pets respond to the sound of a person's voice.

MacDorman has held several positions at Osaka University when android science was just starting to move forward. IUPUI is the only university in the United States to offer instruction on android science.

MacDorman told the Indianapolis Star he envisions androids being able to accomplish much more than just robot-like menial labor. Instead he is working to make them more humanly sensitive, by being able to recognize a joke, for example. "I really don't see androids doing things like mowing the lawn, washing dishes," he told the Star, "or fighting fires and defusing bombs," he said. "When Americans think about robots, they typically think about tasks they can do."

MacDorman is an associate professor of human-computer interaction in IU's School of Informatics, and also an adjunct professor with Purdue University's School of Engineering and Technology.

Read More:

About the Author

Paul McCloskey is contributing editor of Syllabus.

Featured

  • student reading a book with a brain, a protective hand, a computer monitor showing education icons, gears, and leaves

    4 Steps to Responsible AI Implementation

    Researchers at the University of Kansas Center for Innovation, Design & Digital Learning (CIDDL) have published a new framework for the responsible implementation of artificial intelligence at all levels of education.

  • three glowing stacks of tech-themed icons

    Research: LLMs Need a Translation Layer to Launch Complex Cyber Attacks

    While large language models have been touted for their potential in cybersecurity, they are still far from executing real-world cyber attacks — unless given help from a new kind of abstraction layer, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Anthropic.

  • Hand holding a stylus over a tablet with futuristic risk management icons

    Why Universities Are Ransomware's Easy Target: Lessons from the 23% Surge

    Academic environments face heightened risk because their collaboration-driven environments are inherently open, making them more susceptible to attack, while the high-value research data they hold makes them an especially attractive target. The question is not if this data will be targeted, but whether universities can defend it swiftly enough against increasingly AI-powered threats.

  • magnifying glass revealing the letters AI

    New Tool Tracks Unauthorized AI Usage Across Organizations

    DevOps platform provider JFrog is taking aim at a growing challenge for enterprises: users deploying AI tools without IT approval.