Educators in Britain are now using a robot named KASPAR (Kinesics and Synchronisation in Personal Assistant Robotics), to teach children with autism human social skills. The robot costs $4.33 million, and can smile and stimulate surprise and sadness. They hope that KASPAR will encourage social interaction among the students.
My question is this: How will a robot that simulates human emotions teach autistic children how to socialise, when real people who naturally have the ability to stimulate surprise and sadness cannot?
Perhaps the answer lies in the nature of the disease. People with autism are generally emotionless, and are obsessed with repetition. Sounds like a robot to me.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
