How can it feel anything?!? It's a machine, a toaster, it doesn't have emotions!!! Frak it!

oh wait... is this BSG Cyclon haters?

Creative thought process I had:
Howabout this:
BotPunk -- the inevitable teenage rebellious reaction to the rejection of such emotional robots.
Those teenagers will adopt these initial, simplistic emotion markers from the robots. These robots will be prevalent in minimum wage jobs, and likely, so will teenagers (robots will be absent from higher paying jobs because of the aforementioned rejection of such faux humanity). These rebellious few may even adopt some of the visual standards of the robots as fashion, making clothes that are reminiscent of the lifeless, emotion-filled robots.
Theme?: Humans are robots, led by synapses and hormones.
Result?: Society creating metaphorically robotic humans by rejecting Robot Rights.
Question: What makes emotion real?

When they say robot, do they mean autonomous mechanical item? Or is it just remote controlled, and effectively the same tech as an Imagineer at Disney might use?

It's very expressive, and looks very nice without crossing into the creepy almost-human look. Props for that. But it's autonomy and a script that would allow such a bot to use that mobility, dexterity, and expression that would truly be impressive.

I kept waiting for it to bust out in some Technologic but it never happened =( Looks like there are some Daft Punk fans over at MIT.

That was awesome and not at all creepy. I'd like to know more, though. Like was that a recorded audio track with a synchronized movement track? Or was there some "emotional track" it was "playing"?

It's not THAT creepy.

it reminds me of Battle Angel.

How is this such a great advance? Anybody ever seen Disney's Hall of Presidents?

@SeeingI: Bu wHaa HA HA cough...

=( the angry face is the last thing they will see after see 'upgrades.'

Ah crap after her upgrades...

Burn it! It's a witch!

Actually I think it's very cool.

It's really amazing how much expression they get out of just eye-blinks, head angle and eyebrow wiggles. This type of communication will be key to "body language" communication between humans and robots, which should not be underestimated in importance. One raised eyebrow can often communicate more information more succinctly than a paragraph's worth of speech.

I wish they would make a real life Johnny 5. That would be awesome.

I've read that for interpersonal communication, 70% of the message is conveyed in the body language, 20% in the tone and 10% in the actual word text.

What if our appliances, cars, etc could communicate more "emotively" instead of bombarding us with text?

Displaying emotional states is not hard. Understanding emotional states is hard.

I'd be horrified to wake up in a world of sociopathic robots who use emotional body and facial language to manipulate us but don't have clue one as to what remorse or empathy really mean.

Displaying emotional states is easy. Understanding emotional states is hard.

I don't want to wake up in a world of sociopathic robots that use emotional body-language to manipulate us but don't have single clue what empathy or remorse really mean.

I've been watching this off and on through out the day and the more I watch it the more convincing this thing is becoming. I think my mind is gradually filling in the missing facial muscle movements that I know and expect should be there. Or maybe I just need to get off my computer but either way this is awesome and I want one.

It needs a depressed Marvin-Voicetone to go with it's standard emo face.

Yeah, that didn't really seem autonomous -- it just looked preprogrammed, not even remote-controlled like those human-looking androids they're making in Japan.

If it can use those capabilities automatically, though, that would be cool.

Finally! A robot who can convey a sense of hatred and rage. That'll be great for our teambuilding sessions down in the salt mines.

Seriously tho, it's missing quite a bit. It's based entirely on head position, eyebrows, and eyelids. No simulation of the muscles around the mouth? Pretty critical - smile frown tight-lips gaping maw teeth bared etc etc etc.

SKYNET IS RISING!

That stupid MIT robot is nothing compared to what we're doing at UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) .. that's right .. uh huh .. full functioning stripper bots .. with a bill acceptor in the belly button. "I love you long battery time baby."

Beat that!

The Mighty Kmuzu has written..