Marketing professors at Arizona State University say that it’s possible for people to experience “material possession love”, where they spend more time and money on possessions they’re emotionally attached to than they would on a significant other or loved one. More »
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I have approximately three facial expressions: staring at computer (eyes glazed), staring at TV (eyes more glazed), and staring at phone (eyes focused, brow furrowed). Watching this truly freakishly expressive robot, however, I frowned a bit. More »
How’s the world feeling right now? There’s only one way to find out – build yourself one of these handsome Arduino-powered, Twitter-parsing LED mood lights. More »
Adam’s disturbing adventure with the Fleshlight (NSFW) this week got me thinking about the flipside of sex with machines. What about our emotional needs? More »
Part of the Emotionalise Your Light competition, the Perfekt Desk is a prototype desk-slash-lamp workstation, trimmed with LEDs that change colours in order to reflect your mood.
Now there’s officially no reason to leave the house. Ever. We can call in food, clothing and gadget deliveries. We can pay our bills online. Thanks to infomercials, we can exercise in the comfort of a door frame. And today we discover that we can get all randy (or depressed) chatting with significant others on IM or its cousin, the text message. So says Jeffrey Hancock and his team at Cornell University anyway, and who are we to argue with scientists?
newVideoPlayer("/ewwrobot.flv", 506, 282,""); Dave McGoran of the University of West England has built what he called the Heart Robot, a semihumanoid doll that “appreciates” affection. Covered in a variety of sensors, Heart Robot responds to your attentions with a range of expressive and, to be honest, unsettling tools: batting eyelids, a beating heart and pleasant purring, to name a few.
