Meet Nadine, the Emotionally Intelligent Robot

Meet Nadine, the emotionally intelligent robot. The robot was designed by engineers from the Nanyang Technological University and was revealed this Tuesday in Singapore. In order to test her skills, Nadine currently works as one of the university’s receptionists.

Nadine’s technology is very similar to the one Siri uses, and this enables her to talk and act like a human. Given that Nadine has a personality, she can change her mood and express emotions, according to the subject and the tone of the conversation. Nadine’s memory allows her to recognize the people she has seen before and she can remember previous conversations.

A robotics professor from the NTU School of Computer Engineering, Nadia Thalmann, said that Nadine resembles a human companion that is always aware of what is happening and is always with you.  The predicts that in the future, the socially intelligent robots will be much more evolved than Nadine and coming more closer to the C-3PO, the Star Wars robot who is fluent in more than 6 million ways of communicating.

Professor Thalmann also said that robots like this one could become companions or caretakers for the elders and children, as well as office assistants. She said that this type of robot could become extremely important especially in the healthcare department.

Another important fact that needs to be known about Nadine is that the was created to resemble the appearance of her creator, Nadia Thalmann. They even share very similar names.

Another robot introduced by the same team is EDGAR, who is a robot that can copy the movements of its human user. EDGAR can be controlled from any place in the world that has internet. That is because you need a webcam in order to control it. He can also read programmed scripts, smile and greet humans.

Unlike Nadine, EDGAR could become very useful in business, education and tourism departments, according to the professor and engineer Gerald Seet. He said that telepresence is an important factor, meaning that the user can project his presence in more locations at the same time. With geography no longer an obstacle, the number of possibilities is immense. For example, a famous professor could hold multiple lectures at the same time all around the world. That could save a lot of money and time in more domains that one.

Nadine, the emotionally intelligent robot is certain to win over all the students and faculty from the Nanyang University.

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