Silas McClintock - Synthesis Report - Emerging Practices
Synthesis Report
My journey through the research of Social Robotics has been a bumpy one, and has definitely opened me up to some new interests within the field. I began with researching the Follow-Me robot, Budgee, produced by 5elements Robotics. It was surprisingly refreshing to pull this product apart and try to understand a real use for it, one I couldn't find, seeing as it was a glorified suitcase on wheels. I then moved forward within the field of follow robots to the Airdog, a drone used for filming extreme sports from a beautiful view. I wanted to explore what the world would be like if this product was created with the general public in mind – potentially putting it in everyone's pocket.
I set out to design the Tri-Eye, a follow drone that connects to all devices via wifi and provides documentation from a third perspective, like a wireless, smart selfie stick.
My evaluation was more about trying to provoke people to think about this future of surveillance we are walking towards. The most important thing for me within this project was trying to understand what kind of imprint this product would leave on society if it were to exist. I set out to not only propose a future generation of follow robot, but also plan an interactive world in which this exists through a Transmedia simulation.
Before marketing a product to the general public, new concepts usually go through a development stage and are targeted to a more specific audience. It is one thing to market your product as being the next big necessity everybody needs, and another thing to actually sell it, and have people realize this necessity. This is where Google failed to engage the public with Glass. Yes, we are all aware that we are moving quickly towards an augmented world. Yes, soon smartphones will develop past the stage of being a handheld device, but Google Glass was still just too foreign of an idea for people to accept. The main issue with the product was peoples concern with their breach of privacy, and it failed to be the breakthrough product that it could have potentially been. This drone could suffer a very similar outcome, unless the public was conditioned in a way to accept it. For example: It took a while for people to get used to the idea of Facebook Messenger collecting meta-data on our conversations, but people eventually warmed up to the idea.
Another problem to tackle traces right back to my Analysis – is there a real purpose for this? Just as people already have travel bags and do not need a robot to take things around for them, people already have cameras in their phones, and can buy selfie sticks if they feel inclined to. What makes having a drone a necessity? Well, we need to address a purpose for this robot. A target audience must be defined, and who needs surveillance and intelligence more than anyone? The army and law-enforcement agencies. This drone could be used to provide close up surveillance of what is happening on ground zero within battle grounds, or drug busts etc. I want to clarify that I do not support war or violence of any form whatsoever, and would never actually consider creating a product used to aid the killing of humans in the name of “defense”. But for the sake of this project, let us assume that the original target audience for this product would be the government agencies involved in defense, law enforcement and intelligence.
Once the drone is developed to an effective social robot that is of use to the government, and public becomes aware of this technology being used to keep track on them, they will be more open to the idea of having this product themselves. This would be the milestone in getting Tri-Eye to the status of a household item. Like having a friend that follows you constantly recording your life, Tri-Eye would provide a second view for video calls, give the online presence of the individual more context in the surrounding world, and most importantly for the growing information industry, provide volumes more meta-data on peoples everyday lives. Further surveillance would also not need to be enforced by the powers in the world, as people would do it out of their own interest, without really understanding they are doing so. This is where it gets sticky for me – this is something that concerns me about the ever developing world. Where is the line when people will say no to the lack of privacy? Will we ever find it, or we continue to get sold this idea that it is in our best interest? That our safety is important? This was something I was trying to do within my Evaluation Report, but failed to do so, seeing as people are so conditioned to smartphones being in their face 24/7, regardless of whether they allow it to be there or not. To try and tackle this idea once again, and hopefully provoke more consideration by the public, phase two of my Synthesis project comes into play – the planning of a Transmedia Story-world based around this not-too-distant reality.
Firstly, a set of false propaganda videos would be created, showing the benefits that everyone receives due to having this kind of surveillance added to security of state. It would glorify the war and show how important it is for us to have this technology. Then a range of false newspaper articles would be created on the uproar of people refusing this privacy breach, riots becoming more common. Videos would be released of people recorded in public spaces with this third-person view, showing both sides of the story, from the rioters point of view and also from the law-enforcement side. Reddit has a sub-reddit called /r/WritingPrompts, which would be used as a way to involve writers from around the world in envisioning this situation. Rebellion symbols could be created so people could post them in the streets of their city. That is just a beginning, this Transmedia story could get as large as people imagine it really. This is the beauty of Transmedia, you can promote a certain story line and people from all around the world keep it alive.
Throughout this study, I have had the opportunity to look a little deeper into the Social Robotics topic than I cared to before. It was interesting to realize how many of these robots still fail to meet a need that we have, and how many of these highly priced machines are really still way too much of a novelty item to really aid humans in our development. I found it to be a real challenge to actually create a robot that meets a need, and even still find myself questioning whether my device would be necessary. However, privacy has always been something that I have had a strong opinion on, and to have the opportunity to use this research in a way through the evaluation segment to tackle that idea has been invaluable to me. Overall, I am grateful for the extension of knowledge in an area that I was completely ignorant in, and visualizing a world where Tri-Eye is in the pocket of every consumer was entertaining and informative to say the least.