A humanoid robot that uses lighter than air gas contained within at least one airtight bladder for stability and support is disclosed. In many embodiments, the humanoid robot includes a body and an airtight bladder associated with the body. The airtight bladder is filled with a sufficient amount of lighter than air gas to make the body buoyant in atmospheric air. In several embodiments, feet that are heavy enough to hold the body to the ground are attached to the body by legs. A variety of locomotion mechanism can be employed by humanoid robots that uses lighter than air gas contained within at least one airtight bladder can be utilized in accordance with different embodiments of the invention including mechanisms that propel the feet of the robot, and/or mechanisms that propel the body of the robot.

A robot includes an operation unit, an imager, an operation controller, a determiner, and an imager controller. The imager is disposed at a predetermined part of the robot and captures an image of a subject. The operation controller controls the operation unit to move the predetermined part. The determiner determines whether the operation controller is moving the predetermined part or not while the imager captures the image of the subject. The imager controller controls the imager or recording of the image of the subject that is captured by the imager, in a case in which the determiner determines that the operation controller is moving the predetermined part, so as to prevent motion of the predetermined part from affecting the image of the subject and causing the operation unit to perform an erroneous operation.

A system for remote servicing of customers includes an interactive display unit at the customer location providing two-way audio/visual communication with a remote service/sales agent, wherein communication inputted by the agent is delivered to customers via a virtual Digital Actor on the display. The system also provides for remote customer service using physical mannequins with interactive capability having two-way audio visual communication ability with the remote agent, wherein communication inputted by the remote service or sales agent is delivered to customers using the physical mannequin. A web solution integrates the virtual Digital Actor system into a business website. A smart phone solution provides the remote service to customers via an App. In another embodiment, the Digital Actor is instead displayed as a 3D hologram. The Digital Actor is also used in an e-learning solution, in a movie studio suite, and as a presenter on TV, online, or other broadcasting applications.

A communication device including: an utterance acquisition part configured to acquire an utterance of a user to a character; an information acquisition part configured to acquire information different from the utterance; a voice generation part configured to generate a response voice to be emitted by the character based on a content of the utterance acquired by the utterance acquisition part; and an expression generation part configured to generate a response expression to be expressed by a face portion of the character based on the content of the utterance acquired by the utterance acquisition part, wherein when the information is acquired from the information acquisition part, the expression generation part generates the response expression using the information together with the content of the utterance, the response expression generated when the information is acquired being different from a response expression generated when the information is not acquired.

A system for remote servicing of customers includes an interactive display unit at the customer location providing two-way audio/visual communication with a remote service/sales agent, wherein communication inputted by the agent is delivered to customers via a virtual Digital Actor on the display. The system also provides for remote customer service using physical mannequins with interactive capability having two-way audio visual communication ability with the remote agent, wherein communication inputted by the remote service or sales agent is delivered to customers using the physical mannequin. A web solution integrates the virtual Digital Actor system into a business website. A smart phone solution provides the remote service to customers via an App. In another embodiment, the Digital Actor is instead displayed as a 3D hologram. The Digital Actor is also used in an e-learning solution, in a movie studio suite, and as a presenter on TV, online, or other broadcasting applications.

Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to providing a large variety of robot personalities. In certain aspects, a robot personality may be represented as a personality location in a personality space, which may be a continuous unidimensional or multidimensional space. The dimensions of the personality space may be based on one or more factors. Based on the personality location, an affective state may be maintained for the robot, which may be represented as an affect location in an affect space. The affect location may be updated based on one or more inputs. Accordingly, robot expressions may be influenced based upon the affect location, which in turn is affected by the personality of the robot in the personality space.

A customer service robot may be limited to a maximum physical ability, such as speed of travel, speed of a robotic arm, etc. However, certain customers may be uncomfortable with a robot operating at the maximum capacity. Accordingly, a customer may have an attribute associated with a performance-limiting criteria. The criteria then limits the robot to operations within operational parameters associated with the performance-limiting criteria. As a benefit, a robot may be transformed to provide a better customer service experience by working quickly to address a customer service task, but within the confines of what a particular customer, or customer type, may consider comfortable or acceptable.

A device for interacting with a user is presented. The device includes a target area, a sensor coupled to the target area, wherein the sensor detects whether a human is present in a predefined proximity region and detects a direction of visual attention given by the human in the predefined proximity region, a processor coupled to the sensor and making a determination that the user's visual attention is in a direction of the target area for a minimum visual contact period, and an input engine that is activated based on the determination.

A robotic creature system includes an actuatable head defining eyes, an eyelid mechanism, a body, a drivetrain, and a set of sensors. A method for robotic creature operation includes: detecting an event associated with a technological imperfection and automatically performing a set of expressive actions associated with the event.

A robotic creature system includes an actuatable head defining eyes, an eyelid mechanism, a body, a drivetrain, and a set of sensors. A method for robotic creature operation includes: detecting an event associated with a technological imperfection and automatically performing a set of expressive actions associated with the event.