The robots are coming. Or rather, they are already among us. While the arrival of robots was prominently discussed at the WEF in Davos last week, automated helpers have long since crept into our everyday lives through the back door. They clean our homes, mow lawns and help care for the elderly. Unspectacularly and almost unnoticed, they have emerged from the laboratories of robotics researchers into our lives to relieve us of dangerous, strenuous or monotonous tasks. And in the process, they have become more and more like us. Not only have the robots' inner workings evolved, but their appearance has changed as well. We still perceive some robots as machines. Others are so tiny that the observer cannot even recognize them with the naked eye. But some now look uncannily like humans. It is these that particularly fascinate us. Take, for example, the "hubots" (a word combination of "human" and "robot") that are part of the everyday lives of the residents of a small Swedish town in the near future in the popular Swedish TV series "Real Humans". They do the housework, drive cars, cook and read bedtime stories to the children. They are exceptionally willing to serve, service-oriented and usually in a good mood. Nevertheless, the question remains: Should we fear them? Because the more humanoid a robot becomes, the more uncanny it seems to us. This phenomenon in robotics is called "Uncanny Valley". And it is measurable: acceptance of robots drops abruptly as soon as they resemble humans too closely. This can put the brakes on innovation. It has long been known from research that new technologies only become established if they are also accepted by people. Nevertheless, there are two ways out of the uncanny valley. The simpler one is to take away the human resemblance of the characters. For example, someone who comes across as "cuddly" as the popular "Paro" does not generate skepticism. With its big black beady eyes and fluffy white fur, the intelligent baby seal conquers the hearts of all animal lovers. Not only dementia patients react positively to the therapy robot designed for them. Young people also fall for the charm of the interactive seal and immediately want to play, talk and cuddle with it.

Why do machine people creep us out?

The second way out of the uncanny valley is more difficult. It consists of identifying those key stimuli that trigger our uneasy feeling toward the machine in the first place. In practice, this is usually more complex than expected. After all, a particular machine person does not have the same creepy effect on all "real" people. For example, children tend to be more open and positive about robots than adults. And those who regularly communicate with avatars in video games will probably be more likely to be served by a humanoid robot in real life in the future. What do you mean by "in the future"? With Pepper, the first truly human robot is now on the market. Equipped with eyes and arms that allow (still limited) facial expressions and gestures, it resembles us humans not only externally. Its interaction is also modeled on our communication. Thanks to facial and voice recognition software, it can respond to the emotional state of its counterpart. Happy, sad or stressed? Pepper finds the right tone and the right words. And that's necessary, because unlike many of the robots we've seen so far, Pepper wasn't designed to push packages around a warehouse or vacuum at home. Rather, Pepper is intended to become the emotional all-round support of its owners, or more precisely: our friend.

Helpers welcome

A friend, however, who - as so often discussed these days - could also be used in the job market. Nestlé is already testing Pepper's skills on the service front, namely in sales. In Japanese household goods stores, he extols the benefits of coffee machines to customers, provides information, answers questions and advises on purchases. For the time being, Pepper serves primarily as a store attraction to draw more customers into the stores. In the medium term, however, he will provide serious support to his human work colleagues, especially where simple and repetitive tasks are involved. Greeting customers in a friendly manner at the entrance, efficiently unloading and parking shopping carts, weighing vegetables, processing payments, lugging heavy shopping bags to the trunk of the car - these are all tasks that he could relieve customers of in the future. This would also appeal to older customers who are still skeptical today. If the tasks become more complex, Pepper, Oshbot and other automated shopping assistants will network their customers with human sales advisors - at least today. The more intelligent and adaptive robots become in the coming years, the more tasks they can be assigned in the longer term on the front lines of service-intensive industries such as retail, restaurants, hotels and tourism. Taking complaints, apprehending shoplifters, keeping unruly customers in check - the possibility of being able to send an artificial colleague ahead in difficult and hectic situations in the future is certainly tempting. And perhaps, in the end, the new servants will even lead themselves out of the uncanny valley.

Martina Kühne is a senior researcher at the Zurich GDI (Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute). She analyzes social, economic and technological changes.

Martina Kühne is now writing as a columnist for the Print edition of the advertising week.
 

The robots are coming. Or rather, they are already among us. While the arrival of robots was prominently discussed at the WEF in Davos last week, automated helpers have long since crept into our everyday lives through the back door. They clean our homes, mow lawns and help care for the elderly. Unspectacularly and almost unnoticed, they have emerged from the laboratories of robotics researchers into our lives to relieve us of dangerous, strenuous or monotonous tasks. And in the process, they have become more and more like us. Not only have the robots' inner workings evolved, but their appearance has changed as well. We still perceive some robots as machines. Others are so tiny that the observer cannot even recognize them with the naked eye. But some now look uncannily like humans. It is these that particularly fascinate us. Take, for example, the "hubots" (a word combination of "human" and "robot") that are part of the everyday lives of the residents of a small Swedish town in the near future in the popular Swedish TV series "Real Humans". They do the housework, drive cars, cook and read bedtime stories to the children. They are exceptionally willing to serve, service-oriented and usually in a good mood. Nevertheless, the question remains: Should we fear them? Because the more humanoid a robot becomes, the more uncanny it seems to us. This phenomenon in robotics is called "Uncanny Valley". And it is measurable: acceptance of robots drops abruptly as soon as they resemble humans too closely. This can put the brakes on innovation. It has long been known from research that new technologies only become established if they are also accepted by people. Nevertheless, there are two ways out of the uncanny valley. The simpler one is to take away the human resemblance of the characters. For example, someone who comes across as "cuddly" as the popular "Paro" does not generate skepticism. With its big black beady eyes and fluffy white fur, the intelligent baby seal conquers the hearts of all animal lovers. Not only dementia patients react positively to the therapy robot designed for them. Young people also fall for the charm of the interactive seal and immediately want to play, talk and cuddle with it.

Why do machine people creep us out?

The second way out of the uncanny valley is more difficult. It consists of identifying those key stimuli that trigger our uneasy feeling toward the machine in the first place. In practice, this is usually more complex than expected. After all, a particular machine person does not have the same creepy effect on all "real" people. For example, children tend to be more open and positive about robots than adults. And those who regularly communicate with avatars in video games will probably be more likely to be served by a humanoid robot in real life in the future. What do you mean by "in the future"? With Pepper, the first truly human robot is now on the market. Equipped with eyes and arms that allow (still limited) facial expressions and gestures, it resembles us humans not only externally. Its interaction is also modeled on our communication. Thanks to facial and voice recognition software, it can respond to the emotional state of its counterpart. Happy, sad or stressed? Pepper finds the right tone and the right words. And that's necessary, because unlike many of the robots we've seen so far, Pepper wasn't designed to push packages around a warehouse or vacuum at home. Rather, Pepper is intended to become the emotional all-round support of its owners, or more precisely: our friend.

Helpers welcome

A friend, however, who - as so often discussed these days - could also be used in the job market. Nestlé is already testing Pepper's skills on the service front, namely in sales. In Japanese household goods stores, he extols the benefits of coffee machines to customers, provides information, answers questions and advises on purchases. For the time being, Pepper serves primarily as a store attraction to draw more customers into the stores. In the medium term, however, he will provide serious support to his human work colleagues, especially where simple and repetitive tasks are involved. Greeting customers in a friendly manner at the entrance, efficiently unloading and parking shopping carts, weighing vegetables, processing payments, lugging heavy shopping bags to the trunk of the car - these are all tasks that he could relieve customers of in the future. This would also appeal to older customers who are still skeptical today. If the tasks become more complex, Pepper, Oshbot and other automated shopping assistants will network their customers with human sales advisors - at least today. The more intelligent and adaptive robots become in the coming years, the more tasks they can be assigned in the longer term on the front lines of service-intensive industries such as retail, restaurants, hotels and tourism. Taking complaints, apprehending shoplifters, keeping unruly customers in check - the possibility of being able to send an artificial colleague ahead in difficult and hectic situations in the future is certainly tempting. And perhaps, in the end, the new servants will even lead themselves out of the uncanny valley.

Martina Kühne is a senior researcher at the Zurich GDI (Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute). She analyzes social, economic and technological changes.

Martina Kühne is now writing as a columnist for the Print edition of the advertising week.