[dorkbotdc-blabber] What do Zanelle and the beer drinking Bar Bot have in common?

[Thomas Edwards]

I love the Bar Bot!  I especially like how it begs for money!

It is interesting to see how people interact with humanoid robots.  I
did a project called "Sycophant" which was a rolling head that locked
on to viewers with IR sensors and followed them while complimenting
and ingratiating itself with them:

http://www.t11s.com/sycophant.html

When I exhibited it at Artomatic, I noticed that some people would
just sit in front of it and enjoy being complimented for quite a long
time.  One viewer said "Can I take it home?  I'd love to have it
compliment me every morning I wake up!"

Similar (but without the humanoid face) was Tom Greave's "Compliment Machine":

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072002123.html

It would be cool to put different faces on Bar Bot and see how much
money each face can "raise".  Maybe have a male face, a female face, a
dog face, and a cat face!

-Thomas




On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 8:13 AM, Alex Barth <mail at a-barth.info> wrote:

> Together with a couple of friends from http://www.timesup.org I set
> out to build a self sufficient robot. The result was the bar bot: a
> robot that hangs out in a bar, scrounging money from patrons and
> ordering a beer when there's enough in its (his, her?) pocket.
>
> Watch the video:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xypy61_GB_c
>
> This project is partly a challenge to humanoid robotics (think: a
> mouse trying to piss on an elephant's leg) and partly a comment on the
> pursuit of happiness in bars (I drink and socialize, therefore I am)
> and certainly not to be taken entirely serious. Still: I think two
> very important aspects of the ultimate humanoid robot are -
> independent purpose and social interaction.
>
> And I might add: the thing needs to have a frickin face :) Don't
> underestimate animism.