Although most home robots have failed, iRobot’s Roomba, the autonomous vacuum cleaner, became the most successful one thus far. People began to relate to the device like it was a person, even giving it names. Former iRobot chief technology officer Paolo Pirjanian explains, “there’s something innate in our mind that triggers when we see something move on its own.” He is now founder/chief executive of Embodied, which is in beta with Moxie, a robot designed to help children improve basic social and cognitive skills. Continue reading Home Robot ‘Moxie’ Teaches Kindness and More to Children

When an Ohio State University study tested how well facial recognition software could detect emotions, it received a 96.9 percent accuracy rate with the six basic emotions and a 76.9 percent accuracy rate with compound emotions such as “happy surprise” and “angry fear.” Emotient, a company that uses machine-learning algorithms, is developing an app for Google Glass that detects emotions in real time. Lead scientist Marian Bartlett says the app will be on the market soon. Continue reading Detect Emotions via Google Glass with Facial Recognition App

New technology allows computers to be programmed to recognize facial expressions — even the most subtle, fleeting expressions. Using frame-by-frame video analysis, computer software can read the muscular changes within people’s faces that indicate a range of emotions. Many predict such software will be used via computer webcams to rate how users respond to certain content — like games or videos — and cater to those users’ perceived needs or desires accordingly. Continue reading Myriad Applications Envisioned for Facial Recognition Tech