Leila Takayama: What's it like to be a robot?
Leila Takayama conducts research on human-robot interaction. Full bio
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to make a first impression,
as well as if you're a person.
one of these robots
called Willow Garage in 2008.
my host walked me into the building
about robots that day
with these possible robot futures,
a lot more about ourselves
expectations for this little dude.
to navigate the physical world,
to navigate my social world --
to get from point A to point B,
not a very efficient thing to do.
that I was a person, not a chair,
to get out of its way
would have been more efficient
to notice that I was a human
than things like chairs and walls do.
as being from outer space
and from science fiction,
that robots are here today,
amongst us right now.
and they cut the grass
if I actually had time to do these tasks,
do it better than I would, too.
he uses the box, it cleans it,
his life better as well as mine.
it's a robot lawnmower,
of other robots hiding in plain sight
like, "dishwasher," right?
serve a purpose in our lives.
at me calling this a robot,
66 degrees Fahrenheit,
it acts on the physical world.
look like Rosie the Robot,
that's really useful in my life
up and down myself.
live and work amongst us now,
living amongst us
a robot operator, too.
from point A to point B,
and maybe even adaptive cruise control.
a fully autonomous car,
like they're invisible-in-use, right?
you're going from one place to another.
that you have to deal with and operate
learning how to drive
extensions of ourselves.
in that tight little garage space,
that maybe you haven't driven before,
to get used to your new robot body.
who operate other types of robots,
a few stories about that.
of remote collaboration.
I had a coworker named Dallas,
in our company in California.
on the table in most of our meetings,
except that, you know,
and we didn't like what he was saying,
after that meeting
in the hallway afterwards
robot body parts laying around,
put together this thing,
like Skype on a stick on wheels,
one of the most powerful tools
for remote collaboration.
Dallas' email question,
and ask me the question again --
That's kind of rude.
for these one-on-one communications,
at the company all-hands meeting.
and committed to your project
of months and then years,
but at others, too.
with these systems
like you're just there.
to give these things personal space.
if you were there in person.
there's breakdowns and it's not.
There must be a camera over there,"
I'm going to turn up your volume,"
walk up to you and say,
I'm going to turn up your face."
these new social norms
feeling like it's your body,
"Oh, my robot is kind of short."
he was six-foot tall --
to cocktail parties and things like that,
which is close to my height.
really looking at me.
at this sea of shoulders,
to be on the shorter end of the spectrum."
a lot of empathy for that experience,
as he was talking to me,
and talk to me eye to eye,
to look at this in the laboratory
things like robot height would make.
used a shorter robot,
used a taller robot
that the exact same person
and says the exact same things as someone,
and perceived as being more credible
the way that Cliff Nass would put this
with these new technologies
that we have very old brains.
at the same speed that tech is
are running around.
not machines, right?
into things like just height of a machine,
to the person using the system.
is really important
how we extend ourselves, right?
in ways that are sort of surprising.
because the robots don't have arms,
who are playing pool
for team bonding,
at operating these systems
like make up new games,
in the middle of the night,
operating these systems.
who logged into the robot
90 degrees to the left.
around the office,
getting super embarrassed,
his volume was way too high.
in the image is telling me,
was we don't want it to be so disruptive.
avoidance to the system.
that could see the obstacles,
try to say, run into a chair,
it would just plan a path around,
using that system, obviously,
to get through our obstacle course,
this important human dimension --
called locus of control,
a strong internal locus of control,
of their own destiny --
to an autonomous system --
fight the autonomy;
I'm going to hit that chair."
from having that autonomous assistance,
autonomous, say, cars, right?
to grapple with that loss of control?
depending on human dimensions.
as if we're just one monolithic thing.
moment to moment,
the human dimensions,
also comes a sense of responsibility.
using one of these systems,
would look like.
that's very familiar to people,
like it's a video game.
over at Stanford play with the system
around our office in Menlo Park,
20 points for that one."
chase them down the hallway.
and feel pain if you hit them."
they would be like,
he just looks like he needs to get hit."
like "Ender's Game," right?
as people designing these interfaces
to their actions
these increasingly autonomous things.
possible robotic future,
that we can extend ourselves
that we extend ourselves
being able to express our humanity
shorter, taller, faster, slower,
for the robots themselves.
to this intersection in Manhattan,"
forward, that's it.
it doesn't know how to see the world,
upon the kindness of strangers.
to the other side of Manhattan --
and point it in the right direction.
this human-robot world
and collaborate with one another,
and just do things on our own.
like the artists and the designers,
anthropologists --
that Stu Card says we should do,
that we actually want to live in.
robotic futures together,
learning a lot more about ourselves.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Leila Takayama - Social scientistLeila Takayama conducts research on human-robot interaction.
Why you should listen
Leila Takayama is an acting associate professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she founded and leads the Re-Embodied Cognition Lab. Her lab examines how people make sense of, interact with, and relate to new technologies. Prior to academia, she was a researcher at GoogleX and Willow Garage, where she developed a taste for working alongside engineers, designers, animators, and more. Her interdisciplinary research continues in her current work on what happens when people interact with robots and through robots.
Takayama is a World Economic Forum Global Futures Council Member and Young Global Leader. In 2015, she was presented the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Early Career Award. In 2012, she was named a TR35 winner and one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company. She completed her PhD in Communication at Stanford University in 2008, advised by Professor Clifford Nass. She also holds a PhD minor in Psychology from Stanford, a master's degree in Communication from Stanford, and bachelor's of arts degrees in Psychology and Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley (2003). During her graduate studies, she was a research assistant in the User Interface Research (UIR) group at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
Photo: Melissa DeWitt
Leila Takayama | Speaker | TED.com