Angry Birds, the mobile game that has allegedly cost billions in productivity losses over the years, continues to be Rovio’s biggest money spinner until today. While the game has lost its initial popularity among the masses, it has become a highly recognizable icon, and a Georgia Tech team has worked to pair up a humanoid robot alongside Angry Birds to assist kids when it comes to the rehabilitation process. In other words, you can now play Angry Birds with a robot.
Thanks to the partnership between a smart tablet and Angry Birds, children can now able to enjoy what used to be the domain of engineers and computer scientists, that is, to program a robot in order to help them pick up new skills. The Georgia Institute of Technology project has been specially designed to function as a rehabilitation tool, in an effort to assist children with disabilities.
Kids will teach a robot how to play Angry Birds using a tablet, as they drag their finger on the tablet to send their feathered friend flying across the screen. The robot will see what has happened, keeping “snapshots” of that action in its memory bank. It will keep track of where the finger starts and stops, notice how the objects on the screen move and its interaction with one another, while using the scoreline as a measurement for success.
The robot’s turn will then try to mimic and improve on the child’s movements, and if the move fails, it will shake its head to reflect a feeling of disappointment. Should it successfully topple a building and score some points, the robot’s eyes will light up, as the machine “celebrates”.
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