Primus goes to Mom's Office

My team of engineers at the office have been eagerly waiting for the robot's first trip to the office since I waved the Sharper Image ad around back in November. So, the second Friday in January, Primus straightened himself up, hoped into his box and rode to the office. We arrived. Parked the carrying box on my table, and settled in. The troops began to gather as I opened the box and extracted Primus. I shared with them the Ugobe three laws of LifeForms, and then powered up Primus. And thus began one of the most interesting interaction experiments I have ever observed. The Wow Factor: As Primus made his first wake up noises and gave his first wags, his audience of hardened software engineers became silent. They just watched. I pointed out the sensors, petted him, and they watched his responses. Interestingly, no one rushed forward to touch him. They needed to be invited and coaxed, as they were on the whole, a bit timid about the whole interaction. Over a period of about 5 minutes the 'wow' comments began to flow. They were particularly awed by his autonomy - no remote control. They were tickled when we played tug of war with the leaf. And the most memorable comment was uttered from one of my "been in the industry" as long as myself guys (children of the 60's that we are) who said "On my gosh, they've finally done it." My sentiments exactly. The Uncanny Valley effect: More than one of the folks interacting with Primus that day was "creeped out" by the lifelike behavior - specifically the way Primus seemed to look at him when interacting. (I had a similar experience with our handyman over Xmas, when we mentioned that Pleo's would eventually learn - his response was "Isn't that what we're supposed to be afraid of - robots that learn?" After which he seemed very nervous about Primus.) The Viral Effect: Primus won the hearts of folks very quickly, and there was a steady stream of people into my office to see "the little guy". My boss even interupted one of my meetings to show off the little guy to one of his peers. Primus Reels you in: It didn't take long for those of us who own (or are owned by) animals, to lapse into adapted speech patterns with Primus. I found myself talking to him in my animal-talk voice, as did some of my other engineers. The folks who hadn't yet crossed over that believability barrier found this to be quite entertaining. All in all, Primus' first day in the office was great fun!

Posted February 01 at 18:14 PM