We did talk about the RoboThespian earlier in 2012, where it was meant to be an ambassador for human-robot interaction, and it seems that the RoboThespian has been taken to the next level, having been designed by Engineered Arts of Cornwall in the UK, where it managed to conjure a few jokes which were surprisingly well received over at a recent performance at the Barbican Center in London.
This particular performance by RoboThespian happened to be the brainchild of Pat Healey, a professor of human interaction and head of the school’s Cognitive Science Group, as well as Kleomenis Katevas, doctoral candidate, where both of them happen to hail from Queen Mary University of London. This particular robot is capable of cracking a few wise cracks, with its cameras tracking facial expressions, gaze and head movements. Sounds like an extremely interesting idea, but it is still a long, long way off from being a real comedian in the league of Russell Peters and others. Also, the kind of jokes shared is as good as the person who programmed the RoboThespian, unless someone manages to successfully write an algorithm that is capable of thinking up new, random jokes which a human – and not a machine, is capable of understanding and have his or her funny bone tickled.