Robotic Outside, Human Inside: New ‘emotional’ Robot ‘Forpheus’ to become your best buddy in future

Las Vegas, January 11: Our future is surprising it seems as we all are looking forward to settling on Mars, giving birth to a baby outside the womb and now a robot which can be our buddy: where he can talk and feel like us! Buddy, the companion robot by Blue Frog Robotics is seen on display during the CES Unveiled preview event at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center during CES 2018 in Las Vegas. 

The robot called Forpheus does more than play a mean game of table tennis. It can read body language to gauge its opponent's ability and offer advice and encouragement.

"It will try to understand your mood and your playing ability and predict a bit about your next shot," said Keith Kersten of Japan-based Omron Automation, which developed Forpheus to showcase its technology.

 

"We don't sell ping pong robots but we are using Forpheus to show how the technology works with people," said Kersten.

Forpheus is among several devices shown at this week's Consumer Electronics Show which highlight how robots can become more human-like by acquiring "emotional intelligence" and empathy.

Honda, the Japanese auto giant, launched a new robotics program called Empower, Experience, Empathy including its new 3E-A18 robot which "shows compassion to humans with a variety of facial expressions," according to a statement.

"We've been working very hard to have an emotional robot," said Jean-Michel Mourier of French-based Blue Frog Robotics, which makes the companion and social robot called Buddy, set to be released later this year.

"He has a complex brain," Mourier said at a CES event. "It will ask for a caress or it will get mad if you poke him in the eye." Developing emotional intelligence in robots is a difficult task, melding the use of computer "vision" to interpret objects and people and creating software that can respond accordingly.

"Empathy is the goal: the robot is putting itself in the shoes of the human, and that's about as hard as it gets," said Patrick Moorhead, a technology analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy.

"There has been a lot of research on detecting human emotions. We do the opposite. We synthesize emotions for the machine," said Patrick Levy-Rosenthal, founder of New York-based Emoshape.

As for Forpheus, Kersten said the robot's ability to help people improve their table tennis skills could have numerous applications for sports, businesses and more.