In the great set up of the Living Machines Conference exhibition at the Science Museum of London the EU project efAA (The Experimental Functional Android Assistant) presents "Dancing with Robots". This is a contemporary dance piece where the humanoid robot iCub dances with the human performer Anuska Fernandez. A continuous action based dialogue is established between the machine and the human that creates a transcendent aesthetic experience. This piece is an experiment in exploring the boundaries of human-machine confluence and the ability to realize an hybrid human-machine aesthetic.
In this human-robot interaction, the iCub robot performs a repertoire of dance-like movements in dialogue with the human dancer. This interaction is based on key iCub capabilities such as social learning, perception and attention. Through this dance performance the iCub robot will show its emotional capability by establishing a sense of understanding and enjoyment with a human dancer. - The performance is directed by Anna Mura and Paul Verschure from SPECS UPF for the efAA project in collaboration with the choreographer Leire Guezala. Researchers Stephane Lallee and Vicky Vouloutsi, from the SPECS laboratory at UPF, are responsable for the technical realization in collaboration with the laboratory of Yiannis Demiris at Imperial College London, and the technical support of the Italian Institute of Technology.
For more videos and news on this event see
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tec
hnology/news/10217293/Meet-the-robot-dancer-and-the-mechanical-portrait-artist.html
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/nr/living-machines-robotics-conference-2013-1.296748
http://www.upf.edu/enoticies/home_upf/0721.html#.UgC5uFNksXw