Companion Robots for Children Get a Bad Rap (Again)
AvatarMind exhibited its iPal companion robot at this week’s Robobusiness and it wasn’t long before the robot drew criticism from the press.
The iPal humanoid robot is larger than Nao and smaller than Pepper. Like Pepper, iPal is semi-conversational and invites interaction via a tablet computer mounted to its torso.
Robot Nannies?
iPal is specifically designed to interact with children. As we’ve seen with regard to previous innovations such as Mattel’s Hello Barbie, the media has a negative bias against digital technologies designed for kids. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that AvatarMind founder Jiping Wang unleashed a firestorm when he apparently made the comment that iPal “could keep children aged three to eight occupied for ‘a couple of hours’ without adult supervision.”
Wang made the comment to the Guardian’s Julia Carrie Wong. Her article on AvatarMind’s technology is harshly critical of the concept of a companion robot for children.
Not So Fast
I don’t know Jiping Wang and I’m not sure why he would have made that statement about the iPal. Wong acknowledges that when she spoke with Madeline Duva, an adviser to AvatarMind, she contradicted Wang’s statement and indicated that the iPal isn’t meant to be used to watch children without parental supervision.
I haven’t used the iPal. My guess is that it currently has a limited set of applications to engage children, but that the inventory of stories, games, and music is growing. As Duva points out, many parents rely heavily on smartphones and tablets to keep their young children occupied.
I’ve witnessed children under the age of seven remain engaged with a streaming cartoon or iPad game for well over an hour. During that time, their parents were around but completely engaged in other activities.
The Age of Interactive Engagement is Coming
We’re entering a new age of toys, games, and devices. IoT is transforming the objects in our homes, offices, and cars into smart things that can communicate with us and other devices.
Cloud computing, speech recognition, and natural language understanding are also turning our home speakers and toys into talking devices.
Leor Grebler has written extensively here about the Amazon Alexa voice revolution. With every day that goes by, more people of all ages are talking to Alexa and enjoying interactive experiences.
Interactive Social Robots Have Their Benefits
I don’t know how engaging AvatarMind’s iPal will turn out to be for children. I can say with confidence, though, that iPal won’t put any nannies out of work and it won’t replace the very meaningful engagement that parents have with their children.
But a conversational, interactive device such as iPal can certainly provide a richer and more intellectually stimulating experience for a child than simply staring at a streaming cartoon. I wish the press would take a deep breath when reviewing these technologies and not jump to same old familiar conclusions.
