Tickle robots

In the past years Driessens & Verstappen have developed three devices for automated skin caress: Spear is a first attempt to reproduce the unpredictable movements of a blade of grass when it is blowing in the wind and gently touches your skin. Tickle is a small autonomous robot with a pair of nubbed rubber caterpillar tracks. Tickle Salon is a robotic installation that uses a suspended probe to carry out sensitive movements over the surface of the skin.

http://notnot.home.xs4all.nl/ticklerobots/

Google files a patent for generating a personality for a robot based on user data

Extract of US Patent N°: 8,996,429 B1

A robot may access a user device to determine or identify information about a user, and the robot may be configured to tailor a personality for interaction with the user based on the identified information. A robot may further receive data associated with the user to identify the user, such as using speech or face recognition. The robot may provide a personalized interaction or response to the user based on the determined information of the user. In some examples, a robot’s personality or personalization can be transferred from one robot to another robot, or information stored on one robot can be shared with another robot over the cloud.