Robots Smiling Back

Not sure how much this buys you, but it makes sense where creating a android-like image to have emotion matching to group or task. We experimented only slightly with this in brand equity systems,  mostly keeping the image smiling.   It was suggested that we might include a quizzical or neutral face to indicate a more neutral position, but that was never integrated.

The Robot Smiled Back   By Columbia Engineering

Columbia Engineering researchers have spent five years developing an autonomous robot with a face that mimics the expressions of nearby humans.

Development of the EVA robot began with the construction of its physical mechanisms, engineered as a disembodied bust with a blue-colored face that can express basic, as well as subtler, emotions via artificial muscles.

The researchers used three-dimensional printing to manufacture complex components that could fit into EVA's human-sized skull without losing functionality. EVA employs deep learning artificial intelligence to "read," then imitate, expressions on nearby human faces, and learned to mimic faces by watching videos of itself.

The robot eventually became capable of reading human facial gestures from a camera, and of responding by mirroring those facial expressions.  .. "

Humanizing Assistants a kind of Privacy Invasion?

From a retail perspective, with further expert comment.

Does humanizing virtual assistants undermine consumer privacy?    by Tom Ryan in Retailwire

A university study finds people increasingly attributing lifelike qualities to virtual assistants and warns this may cause them to reveal more personal information to the companies that use them than they otherwise would.

“These agents are data gathering tools that companies are using to sell us stuff,” said Edward Lank, a professor at the University of Waterloo’s David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, in a statement. “People need to reflect a little to see if they are formulating impressions of these agents rather than seeing them as just a piece of technology and trusting them in ways based on these impressions.”

Researchers had 20 subjects interact with Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri and then asked them about the personalities of the virtual agents and to create an avatar for each. Alexa’s sentiment was seen as genuine and caring, while Siri’s was viewed as disingenuous and cunning. Alexa’s individuality was commonly described as neutral and ordinary, while participants considered the individuality of Google — and Siri, especially — more defined and pronounced.   .... "