Metri
2007
CD:Tatsuya Matsui, Hiroyuki Hoshino
CCD: Marika Hayashi
D: Marika Hayashi
P:Masao Okamoto
a robot made in cooperation with Flower Robotics, Inc., as part of the actual research work conducted by students of Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the University of Tokyo.
When you are asked what makes a robot different from a machine, what is your answer? What is called a “Robot” and what’s not?
The word “Robot” does not have a common definition yet, and it covers a wide range of ideas with an individual interpretation. Looking over those ideas, however, around the main ideas seem to be some qualities with which a robot is identified as “The other” which has an intention or purpose. There is, I assume, animacy, that is, having a motion that is suggestive of a living thing. That animacy is the key to distinguish a robot from a machine. When we understand that, to make a robot means to make what makes a robot, and at the same time, to make what appears to be a living thing.
At a corner of the research and development room of the future Flower Robotics, Inc. set up in the exhibition, not only the robot’s technical aspect but also the psychological effect that a robot makes on people is researched. A robot on a table has soft “flesh” that is qualitatively different from the hard shell that has been added to a static product so far. How to deal with “flesh” (that is a relationship) as a means to make something like a living thing is an important factor in producing a robot.
The exhibited work “Metri” is a robot made in cooperation with Flower Robotics, Inc., as part of the actual research work conducted by students of Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the University of Tokyo.
When you are asked what makes a robot different from a machine, what is your answer? What is called a “Robot” and what’s not?
The word “Robot” does not have a common definition yet, and it covers a wide range of ideas with an individual interpretation. Looking over those ideas, however, around the main ideas seem to be some qualities with which a robot is identified as “The other” which has an intention or purpose. There is, I assume, animacy, that is, having a motion that is suggestive of a living thing. That animacy is the key to distinguish a robot from a machine. When we understand that, to make a robot means to make what makes a robot, and at the same time, to make what appears to be a living thing.
At a corner of the research and development room of the future Flower Robotics, Inc. set up in the exhibition, not only the robot’s technical aspect but also the psychological effect that a robot makes on people is researched. A robot on a table has soft “flesh” that is qualitatively different from the hard shell that has been added to a static product so far. How to deal with “flesh” (that is a relationship) as a means to make something like a living thing is an important factor in producing a robot.
The exhibited work “Metri” is a robot made in cooperation with Flower Robotics, Inc., as part of the actual research work conducted by students of Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the University of Tokyo.