Article Research

Can you murder a robot?

Rosalind Picard and Kate Darling join other experts to discuss how and why humans empathize with machines.
Article Research

Robots are becoming classroom tutors. But will they make the grade?

Mechanical mentors try to find their place as teacher’s helpers.
Article Research

Designing social robots for older adults

Researchers present a user-centered design approach to creating intelligent social technologies to empower and help older adults at home.
Post Research

EngageME chosen as an EU Research success story

The technology being developed can enable personalized interactions with an autistic child, helping therapists to engage their attention.
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Robot Expressiveness Affects Children's Learning

Prior research with preschool children has established that book reading, especially when children are encouraged to actively process the s…
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Teaching AI to preschoolers with Randi Williams

In the inaugural episode of the TWiML & AI Podcast’s Black in AI series, PhD student Randi Williams discusses her work with PopBots.
Publication Research

Personalized Machine Learning for Robot Perception of Affect and Engagement in Autism Therapy

Rudovic, O., Lee, J., Dai, M., Schuller, B. , Picard, R. W., " Personalized machine learning for robot perception of affect and engagement in autism therapy," Science Robotics, June 2018.
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Hae Won Park, Personal Robots Group: Social robots for long-term interaction

Hae Won develops interactive social machines that deeply personalize to their users through long-term interaction.
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An interview with Cynthia Breazeal: IEEE VIC Summit 2018

Cynthia Breazeal sits down for an interview with Glenn Zorpette at the 2018 IEEE Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit.
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Intelligent robots could prove to be a boon for autism therapies

Social robots could potentially aid therapists working with autistic children in the future.
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Social robots will become family members in the homes of the future

Home robots won’t just be helpers and cleaners—they’ll be teachers and trainers, too.
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Can artificial intelligence create art?

Click looks at whether AI could ever create an artistic masterpiece.
Post Research

10+ years of Human 2.0

Revisit Human 2.0, a 2007 Media Lab symposium focused on the future of human adaptability.
Project Research

Talking Machines: Democratizing the design of voice-based agents for the home

Embodied voice-based agents, such as Amazon’s Echo, Google Home, and Jibo, are becoming increasingly present in the home environment. For m…
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Personalized “deep learning” equips robots for autism therapy

Machine learning network offers personalized estimates of children’s behavior.
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The Robots Are Coming! The Robots Are Coming!

“I’m not worried so much about robots developing their own agenda and taking over the world."
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Measuring kids’ relationships with robots

Exploring how the relational features of robots impact children’s engagement and learning.
Article Research

Defining the dilemmas of artificial intelligence

Media Lab researchers are part of a growing movement at MIT to explore the regulatory frontiers of AI—in society and in our hearts and minds
Project Research

Realtime Detection of Social Cues

Realtime detection of social cues in children’s voicesIn everyday conversation, people use what are known as backchannels to signal to some…
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Personalized Interaction for Language Learning

The process by which children learn native languages is markedly different from the process of learning a second, or non-native, language. …
Publication Research

RoboChain: A Secure Data-Sharing Framework for Human-Robot Interaction

Eduardo Castello Ferrer, Ognjen Rudovic, Thomas Hardjono, Alex Pentland, “RoboChain: A Secure Data-Sharing Framework for Human-Robot Interaction” eTELEMED 2018.
Gallery Research

RoboChain Project Figures
Publication Research

P2PSTORY: Dataset of Children Storytelling and Listening in Peer-to-Peer Interactions

Nikhita Singh, Jin Joo Lee, Ishaan Grover, and Cynthia Breazeal (2018). P2PSTORY: Dataset of Children Storytelling and Listening in Peer-to-Peer Interactions. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Publication Research

Measuring Young Children’s Long-Term Relationships with Social Robots

Kory Westlund, J. M., Park, H., Williams, R., & Breazeal, C. (2018). Measuring Young Children’s Long-term Relationships with Social Robots. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC). ACM: New York, NY.
Article Research

Kids can pick up attitude from robots they play and learn with

“The goal is to have a companion that has all of the behaviors that we want to instill and promote in the child”
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Making new (robot) friends: Further reading

For the interested reader:If you'd like to learn more about the topics covered in my post,  Making new (robot) friends: Understanding …
Article Research

The new robot in school

Meet Tega—one of the newest creations from the Personal Robots Group (PRG), led at the MIT Media Lab by associate professor of Me…
Publication Research

Tega, A Social Robot

Kory Westlund, J. M., Lee, J., Plummer, L., Faridia, F., Gray, J., Berlin, M., Quintus-Bosz, H., Harmann, R., Hess, M., Dyer, S., dos Santos, K., Adalgeirsson, S., Gordon, G., Spaulding, S., Martinez, M., Das, M., Archie, M., Jeong, S., & Breazeal, C. (2016). Tega: A Social Robot. In Proceedings of the 11th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction: Video Presentations.
Publication Research

Detecting the Trustworthiness of Novel Partners in Economic Exchange

D DeSteno, C Breazeal, R Frank, D Pizarro, J Baumann, L Dickens, JJ Lee (2012). Detecting the Trustworthiness of Novel Partners in Economic Exchange. Psychological Science.
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Telling Stories to Robots: The Effect of Backchanneling on a Child's Storytelling

Hae Won Park, Mirko Gelsomini, Jin Joo Lee, and Cynthia Breazeal. 2017. Telling Stories to Robots: The Effect of Backchanneling on a Child's Storytelling. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '17).
Publication Research

Children use non-verbal cues to learn new words from robots as well as people

Kory Westlund., J. M., Dickens, L., Jeong, S., Harris, P. L., DeSteno, D., & Breazeal, C. L. (2017). Children use non-verbal cues to learn new words from robots as well as people. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.
Article Research

They’re alive! Are smart toys changing how children interact with humans?

It’s cute when a kid asks, “Alexa, did you farted?,” but as the realm of smart technology quickly evolves from household voice assistants t…
Article Research

Should children form emotional bonds with robots?

When I brought the robot home from the Apple Store, I knew I was inviting a new kind of strangeness into our lives. My wife worried ab…
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Social Robots in Space: Initial Explorations

Can we enable social connectivity between astronauts and people on Earth through an embodied agent?Astronauts actively communicate with the…
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Magic Robot Interaction

Can a magician and a robot collaborate on stage to create a believable, evocative performance?We are studying how the …
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Engaging Robots: Easing Complex Human-Robot Teamwork Using Backchanneling.

MF Jung, JJ Lee, N DePalma, S Adalgeirsson, et al (2013). "Engaging Robots: Easing Complex Human-Robot Teamwork using Backchanneling." In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social (San Antonio, Texas).
Thesis Research

Modeling the Dynamics of Nonverbal Behavior on Interpersonal Trust for Human-Robot Interactions

Jin Joo Lee. Modeling the Dynamics of Nonverbal Behavior on Interpersonal Trust for Human-Robot Interactions. Masters Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011.
Thesis Research

A Bayesian Theory of Mind Approach to Nonverbal Communication for Human-Robot Interactions

Jin Joo Lee. A Bayesian Theory of Mind Approach to Nonverbal Communication for Human-Robot Interactions. PhD Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017.
Publication Research

Backchannel Opportunity Prediction for Social Robot Listeners

HW Park, M Gelsomini, JJ Lee, T Zhu, and C Breazeal (2017). Backchannel Opportunity Prediction for Social Robot Listeners. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
Publication Research

How to Train Your DragonBot: Socially Assistive Robots for Teaching Children About Nutrition Through Play

E Short, K Swift-Spong, J Greczek, A Ramachandran, A Litoiu, E Grigore, D Feil- Seifer, S Shuster, JJ Lee, et al (2014). "How to Train Your DragonBot: Socially Assistive Robots for Teaching Children About Nutrition Through Play." In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Edinburgh, UK).
Article Research

Do Robots Need a Code of Ethics?

What are the legal rights of a robot? This is one of the many questions MIT Media Lab researcher Kate Darling contemplates as part of her w…
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Robots for kids: designing social machines that support children's learning

If we want socially assistive robots instead of robot overlords, well, that’s on us.
Article Research

What interacting with robots might reveal about human nature

The most urgent question for people is not whether machines will take their jobs but how machines will change the way they behave in society
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Making new (robot) friends

Understanding children's relationships with social robots
Article Research

Can robots teach us what it means to be human?

"Are you real?"If you've seen the TV series Westworld, you may remember this line. A man named William has just arrived at Westworld, a sor…
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Children Use Nonverbal Cues to Learn from Robots

When learning from human partners, infants and young children will pay attention to nonverbal signals, such as gaze and bodily orientation,…
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Socially Assistive Robotics: An NSF Expedition in Computing

Our mission is to develop the computational techniques that will enable the design, implementation, and evaluation of "relational" robots, …
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Robotic Learning Companions

The language and literacy skills of young children entering school are highly predictive of their long-term academic success. Children from…
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Kids, AI devices, and intelligent toys

What do children think about machines that think?
Publication Research

Social agent or machine? The framing of a robot affects people's interactions and expressivity

Kory, J. & Kleinberger, R. (2014). Social agent or machine? The framing of a robot affects people's interactions and expressivity. 2nd Workshop on Applications for Emotional Robots held in conjunction with the 9th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.
Publication Research

Deception, Secrets, Children, and Robots: What’s Acceptable?

Kory Westlund, J., & Breazeal, C. (2015). Deception, Secrets, Children, and Robots: What’s Acceptable? Workshop on The Emerging Policy and Ethics of Human-Robot Interaction, held in conjunction with the 10th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.
Publication Research

Effects of Framing a Robot as a Social Agent or as a Machine on Children's Social Behavior

Kory Westlund, J. M., Martinez, M., Archie, M., Das, M., & Breazeal, C. (2016). Effects of Framing a Robot as a Social Agent or as a Machine on Children's Social Behavior. In S. Y. Okita, T. Shibata, & B. Mutlu (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25rd IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) (pp. 688-693). IEEE: Washington, DC.
Publication Research

Flat versus expressive storytelling: young children's learning and retention of a social robot's narrative

Kory Westlund, J., Jeong, S., Park, H. W., Ronfard, S., Adhikari, A., Harris, P. L., David DeSteno, & Breazeal, C. (2017). Flat versus expressive storytelling: young children's learning and retention of a social robot's narrative. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Publication Research

A Comparison of children learning from robots, tablets, and people

Kory Westlund, J., Dickens, L., Jeong, S., Harris, P., DeSteno, D., & Breazeal, C. (2015). A Comparison of children learning from robots, tablets, and people. In Proceedings of New Friends: The 1st International Conference on Social Robots in Therapy and Education.
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Robotic Language Learning Companions

Young children learn language not through listening alone, but through active communication with a social actor. Cultural immersion and con…
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Growing Growth Mindset with a Social Robot Peer

Hae Won Park, Rinat Rosenberg-Kima, Maor Rosenberg, Goren Gordon, and Cynthia Breazeal. 2017. Growing Growth Mindset with a Social Robot Peer. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '17). ACM, New York
Publication Research

Twitter: who gets caught? observed trends in social micro-blogging spam

Almaatouq, Abdullah, et al. "Twitter: who gets caught? observed trends in social micro-blogging spam." Proceedings of the 2014 ACM conference on Web science. ACM, 2014.
Project Research

MDS: Exploring the Dynamics of Human-Robot Collaboration

As robots become more and more capable, we will begin to invite them into our daily lives. There have been few examples of mobile robots ab…
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MDS: Crowdsourcing Human-Robot Interaction: Online Game to Study Collaborative Human Behavior

Many new applications for robots require them to work alongside people as capable members of human-robot teams. We have developed Mars Esc…
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Boxie the Robot: Interactive Physical Agents for Story Gathering

How do we leverage people to make systems more intelligent, efficient, and successful? Is it worthwhile to involve people heavily in the go…
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