Technology is always evolving and as interesting as it is to see what we have available to us today, everyone is always excited about what the future holds. Robots, whether they be in humanoid form or other incarnations are always at the forefront of new technology and there are now robots that exist who can run, walk up stairs and even hold reasonable conversations with us. However, these are often only available to people that have money to burn and not to the mass market.
So what can we realistically expect robots to be able to do in the near future? Well here are three things that could be available to most of us in a time not too far from now.
Love –
Whether you agree with the notion of this or not, the fact is that human to robot relationships can definitely be described as…interesting. It may not be everybody’s cup of tea but that hasn’t stopped a team in Taiwan from looking into what it would take to develop the ability to experience emotions such as love within robots. At the moment the study known as ‘lovotics’ is only in the early stages but it wouldn’t be that farfetched to say that robots in the near future could include this capacity.
The process involves further scientific research into what exactly comprises love for a human being and then trying to replicate this within a machine. Lovotics will look at three different components of love; the psychology, the physiology and the emotional aspects and will even include the use of artificial hormones similar to those humans experience and the ability to recognise facial expressions and react appropriately to them.
Subjective Conversations –
It says a lot about the human condition that simply pressing a few buttons on our mobile phones is just too much hard graft. Personal assistant apps, like every IPhone user’s favourite robot Siri, are available in abundance but there is a widespread problem with all of them in that they only understand certain instructions. Their ability to answer simple objective queries is definitely useful but their inability to deal with even the most straight forward of subjective issues has frustrated users.
That may not be the case for much longer though as this sort of technology is evolving to help users satisfy their need for subjective conversations with their robotic friends. Soon robots of all kinds could be able to understand intonations in our voices, opinions and colloquialisms in order to provide results that fully answer the initial query.
Insult Us –
Ok, so it might not seem much of a step to produce robots that can insult us but one Japanese company have already produced one that does exactly that. However, the technology involved in a lot more advanced than simply having a robot hurl abuse in our direction as this one uses intuition that some humans can’t even manage sometimes.
The robotic girl and her dog stand side by side and will assess the state of your breath and feet in an attack on your personal hygiene which is usually only reserved for close family members. The inventor says his main motivation behind his creation was to make people laugh and this could be the first of many robotic companions aimed at providing us with ‘banter-like’ interaction.
