Emerging Practices 2: Say hA.I. to Paul
This week’s blog consists of identifying a social robot related to an area of personal interest (preferably to do with our pathway within Creative Technologies). If you’ve seen my body of work, you’ll know that psychology and play dominate its entirety. I’d even argue that last year’s first sem project Choke was a great embodiment of emerging practices with my preferred fields; an integration of Virtual Reality as a therapy and storytelling tool for depression and anxiety.
I found some difficulty identifying something as niche or as interesting as my project, while still remaining viable, promising and pleasing. Approaching robotics from a standpoint that is less than favourable makes it difficult for me to enjoy the field, much less find thrill in its ‘emerging’ leaders. At this point they are still too clunky, too affordably modular, and too targeted for the idealistic standards I have built in my head.
Take my case study for example, the Care-O-bot 4, equally as creative in name as proposed function. On opening its informational page, the viewer is greeted with a four picture slide show of Care-O haphazardly Photoshopped into four different scenes titled somewhere between “Possible application: assistance in the kitchen” and “Possible application: assist humans with tasks.” Why, if every single social robot developer, promises the same generic proposal can they not band together and emergence the practice at 10x the speed? Back to poor Care-O, who’s fourth iteration is apparently affable than its predecessor, Care-O bot 3, who wasn’t as “courteous and friendly as a gentleman.”
Despite its shortcomings in my expectations, Care-O has been made “simple to use” for its potential consumer market. With an accessible touchscreen for a head, optional 1/2/no arms, spherical joints, an LED riddled information reading chest, and open dev programmable software, the social robot applies its sleek flashlight body to any purpose one gives it. This is perhaps why I was led to the site, after its proposed application as some form of helper in the medical industry was plastered amongst a number of third party robot reviewing sites.
Care-O’s biggest and most widely covered claim to fame is its iteration as Paul, the store greeter at Saturn-Markt Ingolstadt, a German electronics chain. Programmed to ask customers what the need and bring them to the designated aisle while affording small talk, Chief Digital Officer Martin Wild at Media-Saturn-Holding states that “With Paul, we are offering our customers the opportunity to get to know one of the most advanced robots in the world.”
This statement is nothing to scoff at: Paul even won the 2017 retail technology award in Europe for Best Customer Experience, after being coined as having “the gift of gab!” Saturn plans to implant other Care-Os in further chains to boost the company’s marketability and experimentation in emerging practices.
I have no idea how much Care-O costs, nor am I interested in purchasing one in the slightest. I don’t even know if I can say that It further justifies an abandonment of my low libido for the robotics phenomena. To myself, a cynic scarred by a way-too-young screening of Blade Runner, I want so much more from what robots currently give.
There is so much promise for the future of intelligent, learnable AI integrated into the home and other systems that what I see on the market today is just disappointing? Perhaps further investigation into that specific field would yield a bigger stir, but as of this point from what I see, robots like Care-O distinguish themselves from others only by the number of different tray attachments you can slot into their beautifully spherically shaped claws.
https://www.care-o-bot.de/en/care-o-bot-4.html
https://www.mediamarktsaturn.com/en/press/press-releases/paul-robot-now-also-welcomes-saturn-customers-berlin-and-hamburg
https://www.care-o-bot.de/content/dam/careobot/en/documents/pressreleases/2015_01_15_Care-O-bot_4_en_final.pdf
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/media-spotlight/201411/the-rise-the-robot-therapist
