We took into account that there were some children that were frightened that Miss Dawson looked like a human. From this we have come to the conclusion that the teaching assistant must have a “robotic” appearance otherwise the advantages of being a robot is lost and the children will soon lose interest. For example,
“We have found that people forget she is an android while interacting with her”
This is a quote from Prof Hiroshi Ishiguro the creator of Repliee Q1Expo, this illustrates that the advantage of being a robot is lost, hence, the adoption of a robotic appearance.
Additionally, we have decided that the teaching assistant should have a unisex design so that the teaching assistant is approachable by both genders. As the appearance is robotic, there is no need for silicon to give the appearance of skin, and the outer shell of the robot will be plastic.
The teaching assistant should also be the same height of an average 5 to 9 age group (110 to 134cm) child; this will make the children more comfortable when approaching the teaching assistant. In terms of looks, when analysing the questionnaires, we have decided that the children will react more favourably to different colours of the teaching assistant. This, we hope, will ease any fears the children have surrounding the robot.
Human Appearance - Miss Dawson
Height: - Average Female Height
Weight: - 70 Kilos
Walking Speed: - 5KM / PH
Running Speed: - 12KM / PH
Operational Time: - 8 hours fully charged
Degrees of Movement: - 40 Degrees of movement
Robot Appearance - iBot (Refinement)
Height: - 110 to 134cm
Weight: - 50 Kilos
Walking Speed: - 5KM / PH
Running Speed: - 12KM / PH
Operational Time: - 8 hours fully charged
Degrees of Movement: - 34 Degrees of movement
Due to the problems identified in the questionnaire results the speech recognition software has been improved and implanted into the teaching assistants ears and included microphones in other areas such as the hands. Furthermore, children did highlight the issue with the teaching assistant being unable to see children from a distance. As a result the internal camera component will be improved to 10 mega-pixels.
To make the teaching assistant appeal to both boys and girls the robot will be unisex and now will be called "iBot".
The next post will contain photos of the refinement session.
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