i shot this video of dan stiehl presenting his ‘huggable’ robotic companion teddy bear at the aarp conference in boston two weeks ago. this project is another attempt at making companion robots that elicit positive emotional response, what makes this one unique is its execution. the bear looks and sounds like a real creature, even though he can be tele-operated on-line and carries a video-camera and a microphone. dan has always been an expert fabricator, and this latest robot is no exception.
UPDATE: I was asked to take this video down, so here’s another one I found online: