MIT researchers released Boxie into different environments around the university where it would autonomously engage in interactions with people that were hanging around. People could either agree to participate in Boxie’s documentary about MIT by pressing a green button on one of its sides or they could a make sad-sounding Boxie go away by pressing a red button on its other side.

Making use of its interactive robotic camera, Boxie can be used as an autonomous method for capturing structured documentaries and, while story gathering was the bot’s most overt goal, researchers at the media lab were also viewing the project from another perspective. The MIT Media lab is known to carry out research that is often considered unorthodox. Usually it focuses in on the impact of emerging technologies on everyday life.

¨We hope that this type of interaction that we studied will lead to simpler systems that may be more symbiotic with people… using this simple emotional tie to create better systems and better interactions for people¨ Explains the MIT representative in the video above.

What makes people favour a bot like Boxie over one that displays cold mechanical mannerisms and where might robots with this kind of gentle of behaviour be most useful?

If you’re interested in finding out more about new kinds of social robots, check out the European initiative, Robot Companions for Citizens.

This episode of the radiolab podcast titled Furbidden Knowledge, features an interview with Freedom Baird a former graduate student at the MIT media lab. During the episode, Baird and hosts perform a so called ¨emotional turing test¨ on a group of 7 and 8 year olds. Presenting the children with a Barbie doll, a Furby and a real hamster, they take a look at how long the children are comfortable holding each one upside down.

While the children had no problem holding the Barbie doll upside down for an unlimited amount of time, and immediately felt very guilty holding the hamster upside down for just a few seconds, their interaction with the Furby was much more complicated… although they knew the Furby was just a toy they still felt a strange sort of guilt listening to it protest as they held it on its head.

The podcast also features some of MIT professor Sherry Turkle’s views on these issues as she discusses how machines are capable of pushing our ¨Darwinian buttons¨and Furby’s  creator  Caleb Chung  shares his views on what elements are necessary to foster long-term bonds between humans and machines.