WWW: KASPAR the Friendly Bot

In this edition of Weird World Wednesday, I submit to you this excerpt from Using a Robot to Teach Human Social Skills:

Children with autism are often described as robotic: They are emotionless. They engage in obsessive, repetitive behavior and have trouble communicating and socializing.

Now, a humanoid robot designed to teach autistic children social skills has begun testing in British schools.

Known as KASPAR (Kinesics and Synchronisation in Personal Assistant Robotics), the $4.33 million bot smiles, simulates surprise and sadness, gesticulates and, the researchers hope, will encourage social interaction amongst autistic children.

You can see the face of KASPAR at his website. Don't you just find this wonderfully weird - a robot teaching kids to be human :)