Small Wonder - Part robot, part child

Part robot, part child, the new automaton built by Swiss scientists promises to change the way people view machines...

There’s this kid, just like any other: It will amuse you, will ask you lots of questions, and it might even bother you a little bit. But unlike most kids, it doesn’t walk or talk, and it pays perfect attention.

Meet Wizkid: A Swiss creation – part computer, part robot – that might just change our concept of how people interact with machines.

The robot is the result of a collaboration between an engineer, Frderic Kaplan and an industrial designer, Martino d’Esposito.

Kaplan, a researcher at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne), worked ten years for Sony, creating “brains” for entertainment robots, while D’Esposito currently teaches at ECAL (The University of Art and Design Lausanne).

Their collaboration – which resulted in Wizkid – merged engineering, design and architecture.

The gadget looks like a computer with a neck. The screen on the mobile neck moves about like a head, and it’s trained to hone in on human faces.

On seeing you, the contraption focuses on you and follows your movement.

Also, there’s neither a mouse, nor a keyboard. On Wizkid’s screen, you see yourself surrounded by a “halo” of interactive elements that you can simply select by waving your hands.

If you move away or to one side, Wizkid adapts itself to you.

If you’re with a friend, the robot finds and tracks both of you and tries to figure out your relationship, expressing surprise, confusion or enjoyment when it gets a response.

Its inventors see their creation as playing a new and important role in the transitional world we currently inhabit.

“Wizkid gets us AFK – away from keyboard – and back into the physical world,” explains Kaplan.

Kaplan is not suggesting that Wizkid will replace the interfaces of today’s ordinary computers. However, he does believe that there are many areas in which Wizkid’s augmented reality could ease and enhance the human experience.

Hold up your favourite CD cover and Wizkid will start the stereo.

In the office, Wizkid could add a new dimension to conferences, paying attention to who is speaking – and who is not.

A creature of habit, Wizkid is also capable of keeping track of your preferences: Walk in the door, and the robot will start playing some light jazz.

If you go out of range, and then come back, the robot might just remember you and try to continue from where you left off.

“Unlike a personal computer, it doesn’t force the human to accommodate, and it’s fundamentally social and multi-user,” Kaplan said.

What it does...

Expression: Wizkid expresses itself by “shaking” its head, nodding, bending its neck in various ways and with a very simple “eye brow” system consisting of two horizontal bars that can go up and down.

Interaction: The robot introduces a novel interface system entitled “Halo”.

Interacting with the machine, the user sees himself in a kind of augmented mirror. Around him, several widgets and other interface elements appear. He can just select them by waving his hand. This “interactive halo” follows the user everywhere so that Wizkid’s tools are always “at-hand”.