Toddlers bond with Robot

Pretty cool story in the New Scientist on Monday: Robot becomes one of the kids. Basically, researches found that, with the correct behaviour emulations, an advanced robot was able to integrate into a toddler group as a peer (as opposed to "as a toy", or "as a pet", even, based on touching clues and other interations).

Video below (link):


This has implications for group behaviour theory and social development (it hints at a lot about how we develop thinking about "us"). But mostly it speaks to the evolution of robotics assistance in the classroom, especially for young children.

There is clear evidence that the "uncanny valley" gets substantially farther and wider as we age - the question that this study ponders, but only partially answers, is: Why would we ever use/need *humanoid* robots?

Still: cool :)