WEBVTT - The Sad Tale of HitchBot 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:14.560 Technology with tex Stuff from com be there and welcome 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.760 to tex Stuff. I'm Johns in Strickland and joining me 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:24.280 once again car Stuff Host extraordinaire. Scott, welcome back, Thank 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.600 you very much, thank for having me. I promised this 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.080 time I'm not going to break your heart. Oh yeah, 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.840 that's right with the cars will be illegal someday. And 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:33.720 I didn't say cars will be illegal. I said it 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:37.120 will be illegal to drive a car. Cars would still 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.200 be legal, you just couldn't. You just wouldn't be allowed 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:42.840 to operate. That's like one of those crazy firework rules, 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:44.560 like where you can buy them, but you're not allowed 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.080 to light them. Right Well, you could still right around 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.440 in them, you just wouldn't be the one behind the wheel. 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:52.839 What a horrible future we're talking about. And you know, 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.920 I thought, since since that discussion went so well, let's 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.120 talk about with cars and robots a little bit more. 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:03.520 But for once, we're not talking about autonomous cars. Yeah, finally, 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.679 so let me paint you a word picture Scott. On 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:15.600 July two thousand fourteen, Hitchhiker began a historic journey from Halifax, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:20.680 Nova Scotia, to get to Victoria, British Columbia. On the 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:26.360 other side of Canada. We're talking crossing the entire width 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.200 of Canada. And if you were to do that on 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:33.279 the most efficient route possible, if you got to choose 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.720 the route, that would be at minimum around three thousand, 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.920 six hundred forty four miles or five thousand, eight hundred 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:46.360 sixty four kilometers. However, hitchhikers rarely have the ability to 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:49.560 call exactly what route needs to be taken. They are 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.280 at the mercy of the drivers that pick them up. Sure, 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.040 I'm just I'm headed west exactly, take me as far 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.880 as you're going. And not that I condone hitchhiking or 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:00.440 anything like that. That's kind of dangerous. It can and 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.600 we will definitely get into some danger territory. Part of 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:08.560 this conversation, well, the full trip took closer to ten 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:13.520 thousand kilometers or about sixty two hundred miles. Uh. And 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.400 here's the weird part. The hitchhiker was a robot. Ah, 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.639 that is weird. Yeah, not a person. I've never picked 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:21.400 up a hitchhiker. In fact, for a long time, I 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:24.919 had never even seen one. Uh saw a lot in Hawaii. 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.000 Surfer culture is still going strong. Yeah, there's certain parts 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.359 of the United States that you can expect to see 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:35.079 more hitchhikers than than other parts. And uh in Hawaii, 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.320 I guess would be one of those places. I've been 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.480 there too, and I know exactly what we're talking about. 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.160 I think I've seen more hitchhikers in Hawaii standing at 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.040 bus stops attempting to hit your ride, just hoping to 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.200 catch a ride before that bus shows up. You know, 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:50.200 it's like one or the other. Eventually that bust will come. 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:52.320 But if in the meantime, if I can just get 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:54.240 a free ride down the road, That's what I'll do. 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.160 I've just seen lots and lots of surfers trying to 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.080 trying to get to the beach, trying to catch that 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.480 next wave. That's right, man, you can't the waves wait 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.520 for no one. And so we're talking about Hitchbot, which 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.080 a lot of you have probably heard about. Hitchbot made 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.160 the news first made the news in two thousand and 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.320 fourteen during this historic attempt to get a robot to 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.320 hitchhike across all of Canada successful. It was successful, so 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:21.160 spoiler alert there, and then went on to do this 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.320 again in Germany. It went all over Germany and it 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.519 also took a little vacation in the Netherlands, and then 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.760 finally there was an attempt for this robot to hitchhike 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.400 it's way across the United States, which was cut short. 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:37.640 Just like the robot. This all sounds so nice. What 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:42.000 could possibly go wrong? So you might be wondering, I've 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.120 heard about this, what actually is going on? The first 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.440 thing I want to say is, while we're talking about 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:51.440 a hitchhiking robot, honestly, if I were to describe this, 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.800 I would not have used the word robot. Yeah, it's 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:57.840 they're using the term very loosely. I think here. I 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.800 think it's because the form factor makes it looks sort 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:04.440 of like a robot. Uh. And it definitely had the 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.480 benefit of having like a light display that that made 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.200 a very simple smiley face, so you had kind of 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.680 a you know, a head that you could identify. But really, 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.440 we're really talking about a hitchhiking computer. It's just a 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:20.400 hitchhiking computer that was in a more or less static 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:23.039 robot body. It's simple, but they found a way to 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.320 anthropomorphosize this thing to the point where people look at 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:28.360 it and said, oh, that's kind of cute. Yeah, because 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:30.960 it has a torso. It's got arms and legs, and 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:35.000 arms and legs don't move the torso static torsos a 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:40.200 bucket um literally and literally a bucket. It does have 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.720 a cellar panels that are arranged on the outside of 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.600 the bucket, so that's one of the ways that the 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.599 robot gets electricity. The other is that it will ask 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.719 people to plug it into the a lighter socket on 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.320 a in a car. Yeah, it's only about three ft tall, 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.960 so it's very small. Waterproof, which is a kind of surprise. 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.040 It's waterproof, but it is well and also, I mean 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:08.120 it wears waterproof boots. Every single article, every article without fail, 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.760 talks about the fact that it wears Wellies. Wellington's the 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.719 brand name boot. Yeah, okay, like a like a rubber boot. 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.200 It's a named after the Duke of Wellington. Well It's 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:21.400 arms are what pool noodles, So you know, it's not 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:23.480 it's not like they went to two great lengths to 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:25.800 try to make this thing look human or anything like that. 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:28.080 But it does have arms and legs. It does have 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.680 a face as you mentioned, has um a almost looks 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.080 like a tupperware container on the top looks like a hat. 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.160 A beret or something like that. UM that's designed to 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:42.279 to actually protect the the electronics, the tablet computer that 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:46.440 is running the software that the robot so used likely 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.680 part of the waterproofing overall, I guess, and UM it's 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:52.280 GPS equipped. The thing weighs about twenty five pounds total, 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.799 so it's not that heavy. Really has its own built 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.040 in seat that it's like a car seat almost that well, 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:00.279 it is a car seat from a kid's car seat 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:02.880 that you can then put in your car and buckle 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:04.280 in so that secure when it's in there, it's not 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.520 gonna fly around the vehicle loose, you know, it's something 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.680 were to happen, right And and it's legs are not powered, 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.440 they are statics. So the way that you would set 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:14.320 this up when you are done carrying it as far 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.320 as you want to carry it is the seat also 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:21.200 has essentially a lever that can fold down into a 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:25.680 tripod like position, so the two legs act as two 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.039 of the legs of the tripod. This lever access the 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:29.440 third and if you were to pick it up, you 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:33.120 could fold that arm back up against the seat, so 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.359 that would allow you to put it into your vehicle 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.440 and secure the car seat, and as if you were 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:39.919 in an area that you wanted to set it up 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:41.400 on the side of the road that was you know, 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:43.599 like a field or something where there's nowhere for it 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:45.120 to sit, like on a bench or maybe on a 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.160 wall or something right the right and uh, you know, 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.240 like I said, it was running on essentially a tablet 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.440 PC that if you looked at all the equipment according 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:59.040 to the website, Uh, it cost about a thousand dollars, 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.120 maybe a little less. And that was a calculated decision. 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.120 They wanted that. They, being the team behind this, and 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.080 I'll talk about them in a second, wanted the robot 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.160 to be inexpensive enough where it would not be an 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.440 obvious target for someone to just steal the components out 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.960 of it. They wanted it to be uh, accessible, They 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:20.240 wanted it to be cute. They wanted it to be 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.120 something that people would want to interact with and to 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:27.920 have enough of an ability to have interactions, including holding 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:32.880 a conversation sort of ye kind of yeah, we're being 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.800 real generous with the term conversation. That's one thing that 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:38.160 you and I talked about off air is that every 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.000 conversation we've ever seen with this, you know that between 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:45.400 a human and hitchpot. It was awkward to say the least. 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.440 I mean, it was it kind of it kind of 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:50.960 picked up on what what the even was saying, but 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.000 not entirely didn't quite get the gist of the conversation, 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.560 and it would respond in an awkward way. Yeah, it had. 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:58.920 It had a microphone so it could pick up on 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.480 what people were saying, and a speaker so it could 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:05.320 then return and communicate back. And a big problem with 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:08.840 that was probably the the vast array of dialects that 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:11.800 was dealing with, right, and just the fact that our 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:16.160 spoken language is incredibly plastic and adaptive and there are 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.200 so many different ways to say the same thing that 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:21.960 it can be difficult for you know, It's like a 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.119 non native speaker of any language, you might be taught 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.640 how to say or ask for something a very specific way, 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:32.280 and that specific way is still correct, it's not incorrect, 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.679 but it's just one way to say that, to express 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.160 that thought. And in most languages there are lots of 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:43.160 different ways to express the same thought, and you're familiar 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:45.480 with one of them, so if anyone comes up to 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.120 you and uses a different one, you could be completely confused. 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:51.720 Even though you know, one way of saying it that 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.440 you understand all these other ways don't. Same thing with computers. 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.600 If you train a computer using machine learning on what 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.440 and phrases mean, that's great, the computer might be able 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:06.400 to identify that. But if someone were to ask for 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.920 the same sort of thing but word it slightly differently, 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.160 that could be enough to throw a computer off, because 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:17.000 these are subtle things that we humans can intuitively grasp, 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:21.120 but computers lack intuition. And there's not only the word problem. 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.800 There's also the way that it's said. So the you know, 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.480 the the regions, zones, like you know, here in the South, 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:29.520 people talk different than they do in the Pacific, or 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:34.120 the Pacific Northwest, or the or the Northeast or you know, 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:38.800 the the Northeast talk faster than I can hear. So 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.480 it's different. It's different, not only um, you know, just 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:43.800 the different languages, like of course this thing had to 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:46.760 learn German, had to learn, uh, you know, Dutch. I 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.520 guess I had no French to get through all of Canada. Sure, yeah, 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.040 exactly right, and of course English, and you know, and 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.240 not only that, but the different dialects along the way. 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.400 Sure yeah, so lots of challenges here. But the whole 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.480 goal was not The goal really, I don't think was 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.040 to have a robot hitchhike from one end of Canada 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:08.640 to another. That was sort of the the face of 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:12.760 this project. The actual goal was more of an artistic 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:17.199 expression as well as an experiment in robot human interactions, 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.280 because the thing could have been picked up right at 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:22.280 the right at the start, right the very first day, 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.839 and driven all the way across by one person, you know, 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.080 on a long haul truck or something, and what would 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:29.480 be the adventure and that what would be the fun. 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:33.920 The idea was that this relies on human interaction and 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.080 human kindness to get this thing from one place to 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.160 the next, kind of to take care of this thing 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.120 and along the way have kind of a checklist of 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:42.439 things that they wanted to do. Now I don't know 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:44.520 if the Canadian trip had a checklist. I don't think 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.520 it did. Uh. The USA trip did have a checklist, 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:50.920 which was was started um. But the Canadian trip um, 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:53.200 you know, just for instance, you know, in twenty six 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:57.160 days to get across um, you know, the entire nation there. 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.240 But it did things like a tend to wedding, um, 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.079 it was dancing in Saskatchewan. It it met some of 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.319 the Canadians First Nations people, uh, some of the Aboriginal 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:10.040 people um that were um, you know, native to Canada. 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:12.600 And it did all kinds of things. I mean, it 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.640 went to you know, parks, it went to scenic locations, 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.719 and all the time it was snapping photographs because this 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.800 programmed to take a photo every twenty minutes, right, and 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:25.960 it could tweet out that information. So it's interactions were 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.400 uh doubled, and that it could interact in person to 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:34.320 people who are around it and actually attempt to have 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.640 a conversation and interject. In fact, I read one report 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.679 of people who had picked up the robot and they said, yeah, 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.320 it was weird. There were three of us in the 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.360 car plus the robot, and we would the three of 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.320 us be talking, and the robot would interject and interrupt 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.960 us and often say something that is completely not connected 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.400 to any of the rest of the conversation. And I thought, 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.560 I've written in cars with people like that, you know, 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.240 just just someone just pipes up with a total non 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.400 sequitor and you think, are are we in the car 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:08.600 with a crazy person? What's that have to do with 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.000 the price of eggs? In China. Yeah, something along those lines, 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.480 and so, uh, you know that that was definitely part 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.960 of it. I think there was certainly an an element 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.920 of let's see how humans treat robots and also let's 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.440 see how we can design a robot that from the 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:29.439 get go is meant to interact with humans. Because one 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.400 of the things we're starting to see increasingly in technology 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:37.600 is the robotic sphere and the human sphere colliding like 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.320 there and and by design, we want robots in our lives. 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.880 People have named their room bas for example, they have 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.240 given their room bas uh. You know, they've they've imprinted 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:53.160 upon them this idea of a personality. Something happens to 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:55.360 that room, but you know how sad you're going to be, Well, 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.080 I'd be sad to be out you know two bucks. 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:02.520 That's another thing that there's that side. But you know, 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:06.680 if something happens to Fred, yeah, don't name your room bot, right. Yeah, 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:08.720 But that's true, is a lot of people do name 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.800 these these robots. People get emotionally invested in these machines. 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.080 And so there is this growing field of research of 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:23.560 human robotic interactions. How can we one capitalize on this 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.960 need for humans to have an emotional attachment to these 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:33.160 these otherwise emotionless beings, these beings that lack of consciousness, 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:37.199 lack emotions. How can we capitalize on that so that 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.200 the interactions are are useful and meaningful in some way, 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.920 even if it's only meaningful for the human. If it's 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.360 impossible for it to be meaningful for the robot, that's okay, 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.280 if it's still meaningful for the human. Or how do 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.800 we design robots that are specifically meant to not evoke 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:56.840 that reaction, because it would be just you know, another 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.280 distraction from whatever the robot is supposed to do. Sure, 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:02.880 or it maybe that whatever the robot is supposed to 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:07.040 do is inherently dangerous and should not you know, you 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.240 don't want to encourage human interaction if if a robot 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.040 is meant to do something like dig into rubble, you 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.800 don't want people to, you know, worry about the robot. 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.200 The whole reason the robots digging into rubble in the 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.240 first place is likely to look for survivors in the 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.480 in the fall out of a building collapse or something, 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:28.520 or well just to prevent having to have a human 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:32.080 do the same thing. Yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah, and that's 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.360 really I mean, the way that a lot of robotics 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.240 experts see robots really taking off, at least in the 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.600 near future, is they will be used to do jobs 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:46.600 that are either too dirty, dull, or dangerous for humans. 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:52.120 So jobs that are incredibly repetitive and don't require much thought, 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:56.400 robots are perfect for that. Also, robots don't sustain like 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:59.920 repetitive injuries. You know, you do have to continuously main 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.560 tame them. You can't just expect them to work forever. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:07.120 But they don't get carbal tunnel syndrome for unless right, 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:09.800 and we we will get to that point eventually. And 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:12.400 dangerous obviously, you don't want, you know, you would want 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:14.040 to be able to use a robot in a dangerous 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.240 situation so that you're not putting human life at risk, 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:18.120 but with the goal of being able to use it 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:22.200 again and again and again. Right. So, but those robots 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:24.840 probably don't need to have a lot of human interactivity. 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:28.760 They're designed to do something that they're replacing a human, 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.600 not interacting with a human. But at the same time, 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.640 we are seeing this growing industry of robots that are 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.560 designed to be around us in our daily lives, either 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:41.880 as a telepresence style robot where the robot is standing 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.680 in as a surrogate for an actual person, and you 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.600 might have like an iPad or something like that as 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.640 a head where someone can skype in. And this is 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.200 always creepy whenever I see it done anywhere, but I 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.560 keep being told it's the way of the future. I 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.200 have never actually interacted directly with one in an official capacity, 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.040 but I've seen them at CS. Now I'm gonna I'm 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:05.080 gonna make a reference to something that I have nothing 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:09.360 I have no personal interaction with. I believe my wife 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.440 was telling me about a movie recently called Her and 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:13.880 it was a man who fell in love with the 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:17.520 operating system and uh and the voice that that that 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.400 that operating system had. Now I can see something like that. 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.280 Let's say you get a refrigerator, and refrigerators have screens 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.040 on them. Now ours does hear it how stuff works, 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:26.880 And it's got a screen but doesn't talk to us, 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:29.000 But it does have a screen. You can interact, and 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:30.320 there's a lot of different things you can do with 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:34.720 that screen, including putting a wacky background image on it, 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:38.960 as someone did when they put in the UM, the 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:43.120 symbol for the evil organization from loss Um. I could 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:44.920 see if if it was talking to you every day 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.240 and had a likable voice, something that you felt comfortable 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:52.120 interacting with. Um that you know, I could see somebody 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:53.640 saying why I'd be sad to get rid of that 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:57.440 refrigerator in in five years? Well, especially if you would 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.320 come home after a long day and the refrigerator says, Hi, 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.680 would you like a frosty adult beverage? I mean, you 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.720 know you're gonna have a bond with that machine immediately. Yeah. 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.080 So but there there's this whole discipline that's coming up, 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:13.280 like how do we how do we define these interactions? 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.240 How do we shape them? Uh? And a lot of 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:19.040 it means you have to do study on both sides. 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:20.960 You have to do a study on the robot side 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:23.359 like what works and what doesn't, and you actually have 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:28.600 to study human psychology how do humans respond to robots 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.880 and at what point do humans end up treating robots 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.480 as if they are alive, as if they're living creatures. 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:38.399 And for a while people were thinking, um, well, the 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.040 robot's gonna need to look like something biological already, Like 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:43.840 it's gonna have to be like a robot dog or 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.800 a robot you know, android type person almost like like 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:48.800 a crash test dummy where it looks like a human 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:50.840 but you can tell it's not a real human. And 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.560 it turns out that's not necessarily true, because as we've 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:55.760 already said, people have been naming the room bus. People 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.600 get emotionally invested. It turns out that we are if 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:02.960 it looks animate, if it appears to behave based upon 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.800 its own decisions, whether it's true or not. If it 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.720 if it looks like it's doing that, we start to 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:13.040 kind of in our minds give it these qualities. So 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:17.240 a lot of this really was studying that, like this 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.920 idea of the way people and machines are interacting and 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:24.359 how that is becoming defined over time and what we 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.160 might need to think about in that respect, and also 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:29.679 just kind of a you know, is a happy story 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:36.840 about how people find joy in uh, a silly I mean, 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.080 really you get down to it, it's a silly robot, 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.560 not a bad robot. It's a silly robot. And and 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:49.080 the the experience of discovery and sharing that with other people. 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:51.800 That was a big part of this project too, and 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.200 it was really successful for three out of the four 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.840 big things that it did. The one that wasn't so 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:02.800 successful and was the unit at States. So um really quickly, 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:04.760 before we get into the US stuff, I was going 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.960 to talk about some of the folks who designed and 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:12.439 came up with this idea. Uh. The two leads who 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.399 first came up with the concept for Hitchbot, we're David 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:21.960 Harris Smith and Franca Zeller. And I probably a mispronouncing 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:26.880 Mrs Ellery heard Fraca Zella. It's a name that I am. 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.840 I was not familiar with, totally new for me. And 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:34.040 they're out of port Credit, Ontario. Yes, and uh. Smith 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.280 is assistant professor at McMaster University in the Department of 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:42.000 Communication Studies. Zeller is an assistant professor in the School 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:46.520 of Professional Communication at Ryerson University Communications professors. Now, this 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.880 makes perfect sense because they're they're fishing for the way 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.520 people interact with this. They want to find out exactly 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:58.200 how people respond to this, how how in response to them. Uh, 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:02.560 this interaction is really really interesting for these people in particular, 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:06.160 I'm sure right. And Zella she got her PhD. Her 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:10.440 thesis was on human robot interaction. Then, yeah, and they 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:12.480 were joined by a lot of other people. I've just 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.240 got a couple of names I'll mention, but the team 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:17.359 itself is quite large. You can actually read up on 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:19.960 all of them on the website. It's funny because the 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:23.720 way the website is written, it's written from Hitchbot's perspective. 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.800 So hitch it's Hitchbot saying, oh, this is the person 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.200 who helped me learn how to talk and it's very cute. 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:32.800 This is the person that takes care of my electronics. Yes, 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:34.920 on a daily basis. I think they're about fourteen or 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:37.200 fifteen people on that team. It's big. It's a big team. 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.320 Is a large team, not just the two two leads here, right, 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:43.840 So you've got people like a colin or a gadget 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.879 who has a develop ro hitchbot, and he's also a 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.399 McMaster University student. He helped design and test hitchbot to 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:54.000 make sure it would be able to withstand the various 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.800 environments that it would encounter. Keep in mind, this was 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:58.720 summer in Canada, so it wasn't going to have to 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:02.880 deal with a Canadian winter. Beautiful Canadian summer. Yeah, it's 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:07.760 a little bit different from the Atlanta summers. Slightly slightly 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:12.280 less warm and humid, about sixty degrees cooler fahrenheit that 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:16.000 is um not Celsius. That would be pretty incredible. Uh. 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:18.800 So then you had Davin Bigelow, who was an undergraduate 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:22.080 student at McMaster who worked on the conversational skills of 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:26.040 this robot. Karen Reveal birth Fish, who was another person 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:30.840 who worked on Hitchbot's language skills. Dominic kal Kinn whose 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:34.119 undergraduate student at McMaster whose job was to monitor Hitchbot's 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:37.480 status and make sure the robot was okay. So again, 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:40.720 the robot was fitted with GPS and three G capability 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:43.720 to essentially report back home saying here's where I'm at, 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:46.000 being given time in every twenty minutes, he's getting a 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:48.399 photograph sent from this robot to him to kind of 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:51.720 update status where he is right now. Yeah, and then 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.440