Tag: interaction

Driving isn’t an autonomous activity

Driverless cars are often called autonomous vehicles – but driving isn’t an autonomous activity. It’s a co-operative social activity, in which part of the job of whoever’s behind the wheel is to communicate with others on the road. Whether on foot, on my bike or in a car, I engage in a lot of hand gestures – mostly meaning ‘wait!’ or ‘go ahead!’ – when I’m out and about, and look for others’ signals. San Francisco Airport has signs telling people to make eye contact before they cross the street outside the terminals. There’s no one in a driverless car to make eye contact with, to see you wave or hear you shout or signal back. The cars do use their turn signals – but they don’t always turn when they signal.

“In the Shadow of Silicon Valley” by Rebecca Solnit

/via @clive@saturation.social

Animal-like machine responding to your every move

Madeline Gannon has a pretty clear discourse about the goal of her research and although she tends to blur the boundary between humans and robots, she clearly keeps them in the realm of objects.

Unfortunately, the same can not be said about the description under the video. Clearly Pier 9 is making it sound ridiculous by anthropomorphizing Mimus.

Mimus is a giant industrial robot that’s curious about the world around her. Mimus sees the world differently than us – she uses sensors embedded in the ceiling above to see everyone around her simultaneously. Mimus can react and move quickly around her space to follow your actions and try to decipher your body language.

(source)