Robotinity – The New RoboLab in Linz, Austria

Credit: AEC

Robotinity the New RoboLab at the Ars Electronica Center Linz, Austria opens March 11, 2011 with a new exhibition called "What Machines Dream Of". The new RoboLab invites visitors to imagine themselves to be archeologists in the distant future and to ask: What would we discover on a dig through the remains of the 21st century, excavating the beginnings of the epoch in which human-machine coexistence was in its infancy? With examples culled from the realms of art, design and science, RoboLab sketches the trajectory of the rise of Robotinity. Highly recommended visit! 

Credit: Infonaut 2010

The new RoboLab gathers together artworks, scientific developments, and visions of the future grouped into four thematic clusters: Environment is populated by robots whose forms and movements take after those of animals with whom humankind has coexisted since time immemorial, and thus alludes to a connection between our newly-acquired technological capabilities and our age-old instincts and behavioral patterns; Medicine focuses on earthshaking developments in the field of medical technology, and illustrates how the organism and the machine are progressively growing together; the LifeStyle area spotlights robotic fashion trends; and RoboLandscape traces the history of robotic design—beginning with plain imitation of certain animals and plants, to the creation of mechanical men capable of walking erect, and culminating in completely new creatures not modeled on any natural precursors.
Ars Electronica Center Linz has been pursuing since 2009: juxtaposition and intermingling of art and science. This course has evoked great interest on the part of the general public, opened up completely new points of view as well as prospects for collaboration, and thus made possible an internationally unique interdisciplinary approach to issues of tremendous importance to the whole world right now and in the days to come.

Pixelspaces I: Human Robot Harmony – Humanoid Robot „Honda ASIMO“

Pixelspaces I: Human Robot Harmony – Humanoid Robot „Honda ASIMO“

Ars Electronica Futurelab and Honda R&D are currently conducting collaborative research into the next generation-relationship between humans and robots. From industrial robots supporting the production process to humanoid robots, many researchers have explored the range of possibilities for robots. Recently, these robot technologies are integrated mostly with information technology, and we see the robotization of physical space emerging. Therefore the applied research contains important questions, such as how will we integrate technologies like the “Humanoid Robot ASIMO” into our daily life, and how we can influence human acceptance and coexistence.

Panel 1: Human Robot Interaction Design

In the Human-Robot Interaction Design session, we will discuss how we can apply methodologies from the fields of art, motion, communication, and interaction to the problem of finding ways in which human robot interactions become natural and intuitive.

Introduction by Christopher Lindinger (AT) - Director of Research and Innovation Ars Electronica Futurelab

Matthew Gardiner (AU) - Artist in Residence at the Ars Electronica Futurelab

Anthony Dunne (UK) - Professor and Head of the Design Interactions Department at the Royal College of Art

Golan Levin (US) - Director Studio for Creative Inquiry and Professor of Electronic Art, Design and Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University

Satoshi Shigemi (JP) - Project Leader of the ASIMO Development

Panel 2: Human-Robot Harmony

What is essential in creating harmony in a society living together with robots? What are the key elements in considering the balance – not the border – between humans and robots.

Introduction by Christopher Lindinger (AT) - Christopher Lindinger (AT), Director of Research and Innovation Ars Electronica Futurelab

Noel Sharkey (UK) - Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and Professor of Public Engagement at the University of Sheffield

Alan Shapiro (US/DE) - Technologist and Futurist

Bernad Batinic (DE/AT) - Professor and Head of the Psychology and Pedagogic Department at the University Linz

Hideaki Ogawa (JP/AT) - Artist & Creator in the Research and Innovation Group of the Ars Electronica Futurelab

Satoshi Shigemi (JP) Project Leader of the ASIMO Development

The World in 100 Years

"Everyone will have his own pocket telephone that will enable him to get in touch with anyone he wishes. People living in the Wireless Age will be able to go everywhere with their transceivers, which they will be able to affix wherever they like— to their hat, for instance …“
Robert Sloss: "The Wireless Century,” in: "The World in 100 Years,” Berlin, 1910

credit: Nicolas Ferrando, Lois Lammerhuber

The new exhibition at the Ars Electronica Center Linz, Austria pays tribute to the creativity, courage and inventiveness of those men and women who have totally committed their energies, abilities and knowledge to a vision of the future. This exhibition surveys a 200-year time span: looking back at what people about a century ago anticipated for this day and age, and showcasing what contemporary thinkers foresee 100 years from now.

Asimo at AEC

Honda’s humanoid robot ASIMO will makes its public debut in Austria at this year's Ars Electronica Festival. September 2-8 in Linz, festival visitors will have the opportunity to experience an impressive demonstration of ASIMO’s extraordinary capabilities at Deep Space in the Ars Electronica Center.

ASIMO will perform “Deep Symphony”, a project developed jointly by researchers and artists at the Ars Electronica Futurelab and Honda’s R&D people. This application enables visitors of the Deep Space, to interactively explore an audiovisual environment together with ASIMO.

Telenoid R1 at Ars Electronica 2010

Japanese roboticist prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka university, will present his newest project a geminoid named “Telenoid R1”.

The term Telenoid is a new term coined from a prefix Tele-, as Telephone and Teleoperation, and the Latin postfix -oides which indicates similarity, as Humanoid. Using Telenoids, people will investigate the essential elements for representing and transferring humanlike presence. In practical usage, Ishiguro expects Telenoid to be used as a new communication media.

The unique appearance may be eery when we first see it. However, once we communicate with others by using the telenoid, we can adapt to it. If a friend speaks from the telenoid, we can imagine the friend’s face on the telenoid’s face. If we embrace it, we have the feeling, that we embrace the friend.

Ishiguro exhibited a “geminoid” during the Ars Electronica Festival 2009 as a featured artist. The geminoid was a tele-operated android modeled after his creator. Once the operator talked with visitors by using the geminoid, both the operator and visitors could adapt to the android body. The operator recognized the android body as his own body and the visitors recognize it as the operator.

Interactive Music Robot

This piece is a joint performance created by Infonaut and Quartet.cc. Quartet is an Internet Interactive Kenetic Musical robotinstrument.

The interactive music robot was developed by art roboticists Jeff Lieberman and Dan Paluska and consists of three robotic musical instruments and an installation visitor. The division of labor is simple: the user inputs a musical motif, software composes a work, and the robot orchestra delivers the performance (though one that turns out to be a highly complex affair). The five-centimeter-wide bars of a marimba are bombarded with balls fired from several meters away, robot fingers dexterously draw melodies out of a wine-glass organ, and an unconventional percussion section provides the rhythm.

The musicrobot Quartet is hosted by the Ars Electronics Center (AEC) in Linz Austria, where visitors can create their own song live, which will automatically posted to YouTube. The music robot can even be accessed via Internet.