Omoy aims to improve digital communication
Japanese scientists from the University of Tsukuba have developed a robot that should improve digital interpersonal communication. The university announced this in early March. The robot, named Omoy, can express the sender’s missing emotions and have a calming effect on the recipient. Quickly written and emotionless text messages can upset the recipient. This is the case, for example, when you tell another person that you will be late for a meeting, but do not apologize. Unpleasant messages are more easily accepted when communicated in person or over the phone. Professor Fumihide Tanaka, head of the project, criticizes the written digital communication that the lack of social feedback directs the focus from the sender to the content.
Feelings are expressed by shifting your weight inside
According to Prof. Tanaka, the handheld robot is intended to suppress anger and other negative interpersonal emotions in the recipients and encourage them to forgive. However, since the robot has no arms or legs, it cannot imitate facial expressions or gestures. The emotions are exclusively expressed by shifting your weight inside. For the robot, the researchers used a 250-gram tungsten weight and a modified weight carrier unit. In addition to a digitally controllable Dynamixel servo motor, a linear guide rail was used. A video shows how Omoy works:
Study proves positive effect on message recipients
The researchers have already checked the effect. For this purpose, a test was carried out with 94 subjects. All participants received a text message saying, “I’m sorry, I’m late. I missed the appointment. Can you wait an hour?” The robot verbally expressed its regret and advised the subjects not to get upset. The researchers came to the conclusion that the robot was able to reduce people’s negative emotions just by shifting their weight. More detailed information is available in the research paper entitled “Weight Shift Movements of a Social Mediator Robot Make It Being Recognized as Serious and Suppress Anger, Revenge and Avoidance Motivation of the User” published on February 28, 2022 in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI became.
M. Wieser / Editor finanzen.net
Image sources: Farknot Architect / Shutterstock.com