rhinoceros
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Machine body language
« on: 2004-06-22 08:47:57 » |
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The following URL arrived at my mailbox with this ambitious description:
<begin quote>
"Can Machines Read Body Language?".
Human communications depends heavily on nonverbal cues; that's often the best way to tell when someone is annoyed, or tired, or pleased. In contrast, it's often impossible to know from looking at it whether a robot is processing data, awaiting instruction, or in need of repair. Now, researchers from Switzerland and South Africa have designed a visual interface that would give autonomous machines the equivalent of body language.
<end quote>
The article itself was much less ambitious:
Fractals Show Machine Intentions
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_061804.asp
A sense of internal states is integral to human communications: it's useful to have a sense of when a human is annoyed. In contrast, it's often impossible to determine whether a robot is processing data, awaiting instruction or in need of repair.
Researchers from Switzerland and South Africa have designed a visual interface that would give autonomous machines the equivalent of body language.
The interface represents a machine's internal state in a way that makes it possible for observers to interpret the machine's behavior.
The researchers' autonomous machine interface consists of a clustering algorithm that groups snapshots of the machine's many internal states into a manageable number of representations, and a fractal generator.
<snip>
Of course, human internal states are much more complex, and so is the body language. Drawing conclusions from human body language is also highly contextual. Have you ever been infuriated by someone who turns his back and walks when you expected a fight?
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