The Helping Hands (prototype)

The piece encourages participants to explore their relationship with technology intended to augment their human bodies, particularly regarding trust, reliance, and symbiosis.

Two robot arms are in constant motion and hard at work. From a distance, they can be seen considering their tasks, communicating with each other, and struggling to make sense of their abstract mission. Participants are encouraged to approach the hands to engage in a dialog with the robots to offer assistance or advice. The project demonstrates a chatter system to simulate affective conversation and a parametric animation engine to provide dynamic, autonomous character-driven movement in the robots. This project premiered at The Other Festival 2013.

This is a work in progress to be presented in the fall of 2013.