If the experiments of one New York roboteer are any indication, most people would help the robot out, pointing it in the right direction and setting it on its way. Kacie Kinzer has been leaving his ‘tweenbots’ - tiny, cute robots with smiling faces and no sense of direction - around New York to see how they cope on their own.
Each has a flag attached to it, asking for help and giving its destination. As the robot can only roll forward in a straight line, it requires passers by to steer it towards its goal.
On the first tweenbot journey, the little guy made it safely across Washington Square Park in 42 minutes, with 29 people helping it en route. The video Kinzer secretly shot shows pedestrians first reacting with bemusement, then setting the tweenbot right as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
According to Kinzer, some people even spoke to the robot - with one man warning it ‘You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road,’ before steering it to safety.
Of course, even if the robots in question are mostly made out of cardboard, look utterly adorable, and are basically helpless, we can help but feel that this is all making us drop our guard ahead of the robot apocalypse. But that's probably just us.
http://www.tweenbots.com/Statistics: Posted by Sonic — Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:03 am
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