Nao: World’s First Robot To Develop And Display Emotions

Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire have designed a robot which not only shows human emotions, but also develops them on its own. Nao imitates the social and emotional skills of a one-year-old child; the humanoid machine looks down when it feels sad and raises his arms, angling for a hug to express happiness. Nao needs to ‘know’ a person, study his body language and facial expressions to detect his emotions. The more it interacts with someone, the more adept Nao becomes at reading a person’s mood. The robot forms part of Feelix Growing , a European project being led by Lola Cañamero, a computer scientist at the University of Hertfordsdhire. The project is aimed at creating companions who can live with people and support them in daily activities. "We're modelling the first years of life," The Guardian quoted Cañamero as saying. "We are working on non-verbal cues and the emotions are revealed through physical postures, gestures and movements of the body rather than facial or verbal expression." Nao makes use of video cameras to detect how close a person comes and sensors to work out how tactile they are. Cañamero explained, "If you want to tell the robot it's doing well, you might show your face or smile or you might pat them on the head."