David Hanson | |
---|---|
Born | David Hanson Jr. December 20, 1969 |
Alma mater | Rhode Island School of Design University of Texas at Dallas |
Occupation | Robotics designer |
Known for | Creator of Sophia |
Children | 1 [1] |
David Hanson Jr. is an American roboticist who is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Hanson Robotics, a Hong Kong-based robotics company founded in 2013. [2]
The designer and researcher creates human-looking robots who have realistic facial expressions, including Sophia and other robots designed to mimic human behavior. [3] Sophia has received widespread media attention, and was the first robot to be granted citizenship.
Hanson was born on December 20, 1969, in Dallas, Texas, United States. He studied at Highland Park High School for his senior year to focus on math and science. As a teenager, Hanson’s hobbies included drawing and reading science fiction works by writers like Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick—the latter of whom he would later replicate in android form. [4]
Hanson has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in Film, Animation, Video (FAV) and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas in interactive arts and engineering. [5] [6] [7] In 1995 as part of an independent-study project on out-of-body experiences, he built a humanoid head in his own likeness, operated by a remote operator. [4]
Hanson’s career has focused on creating humanlike robots. [5] Hanson's most well-known creation is Sophia, the world's first ever robot citizen. [2]
In 2004 at a Denver American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference, Hanson presented K-Bot, a robotic head created with polymer skin, finely sculpted features, and big blue eyes. Named after his lab assistant Kristen Nelson, the robot head had 24 servomotors for realistic movement and cameras in its eyes. At the time he was 33 years old and a graduate student at the University of Texas Dallas. [4]
After he graduated from university, Hanson worked as an artist, and went on to work for Disney where he was a sculptor and material researcher in the Disney Imagineering Lab. [4] He has worked as a designer, sculptor, and robotics developer for Universal Studios and MTV. In 2004, Hanson built the humanoid robot Hertz, a female presenting animated robot head that took about nine months to build. [8]
Hanson is the founder and CEO of Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, which was founded in 2013. [9]
Hanson has been published in materials science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and robotics journals. [10]
Hanson argues precise human looks are a must if people are going to effectively communicate with robots. Hanson believes social humanoid robots have the potential to serve humanity in a variety of functions and helping roles, like tutor, companion, or security guard. [8] He argues the realism of his work has the potential to pose "an identity challenge to the human being," and that realistic robots may polarize the market between those who love realistic robots and those who find them disturbing. [11] Many of Hanson's creations currently serve at research or non-profit institutions around the world, including at the University of Cambridge, University of Geneva, University of Pisa and in laboratories for cognitive science and AI research. [12]
Hanson's creation Zeno, a two-foot tall robot designed in the style of a cartoon boy, provides treatment sessions to children with autism in Texas as a result of a collaboration between the University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas Autism Treatment Center, Texas Instruments and National Instruments, and Hanson. [13]
Other robots include Albert Einstein HUBO, a robotic head designed to look like Albert Einstein's and put it on top of the "HUBO" bipedal robotic frame, [14] and Professor Einstein, a 14.5 inch personal robot that engages in conversation and acts as a companion/tutor. [15]
Hanson collaborated with musician David Byrne on Song for Julio, which appeared at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid in 2008 as part of the Máquinas&Almas (Souls&Machines) exhibit, and his creations have appeared in other museums around the world. [16]
From 2011 to 2013 Hanson was an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Teaching at the University of Texas at Arlington. He also taught in 2010 at the University of North Texas as an adjunct professor in fine arts, kinetic/interactive sculpture, and at the University of Texas at Dallas as an instructor of independent study in interactive sculpture. [7]
Hanson has keynote speeches at leading international technology conferences such as the Consumer Electronics Show [17] and IBC. [18]
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Actroid is a type of android with strong visual human-likeness developed by Osaka University and manufactured by Kokoro Company Ltd.. It was first unveiled at the 2003 International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. Several different versions of the product have been produced since then. In most cases, the robot's appearance has been modeled after an average young woman of Japanese descent.
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Albert HUBO is a humanoid robot, based on the HUBO, but with an animatronic head in the likeness of Albert Einstein. Introduced in 2005, Albert HUBO is the world's first walking humanoid robot with an android head. It was developed by Joon-Ho Oh of KAIST in conjunction with Hanson Robotics, who developed the head. Albert HUBO served as the ambassador of "DYNAMIC KOREA", an initiative by the government of South Korea to rebrand and promote its technology internationally. Albert HUBO is capable of making many facial expressions and interacting with people.
Thomas P. Riccio is an American multimedia artist and academic. He received his BA from Cleveland State University in English Literature in 1978, his MFA from Boston University in 1982, and studied in the PhD program in Performance Studies at New York University from 1983 to 1984. Riccio has directed over one hundred plays at American regional theatres, off-off and off Broadway and has worked extensively in the area of indigenous and ritual performance conducting research and/or creating performances in: South Africa, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Europe, Russia, Siberia, Korea, India, Nepal, China, and Alaska. In 1993 the People's Republic of Sakha declared him a “Cultural Hero”.
Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to robotics:
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Frubber is a patented elastic form of rubber used in robotics. The spongy elastomer has been used by Hanson Robotics for the face of its android robots, including Einstein 3 and Sophia.
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Soft robotics is a subfield of robotics that concerns the design, control, and fabrication of robots composed of compliant materials, instead of rigid links. In contrast to rigid-bodied robots built from metals, ceramics and hard plastics, the compliance of soft robots can improve their safety when working in close contact with humans.
Sophia is a social humanoid robot developed by the Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics. Sophia was activated on February 14, 2016, and made her first public appearance in mid-March 2016 at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, United States. Sophia is marketed as a "social robot" who can mimic social behavior and induce feelings of love in humans.
Hanson Robotics Limited is a Hong Kong-based engineering and robotics company founded by David Hanson, known for its development of human-like robots with artificial intelligence (AI) for consumer, entertainment, service, healthcare, and research applications. The robots include Albert HUBO, the first walking robot with human-like expressions; BINA48, an interactive humanoid robot bust; and Sophia, the world's first robot citizen. The company has 45 employees.
Ribo is the first social humanoid robot which can speak in Bengali. Ribo was created by RoboSUST, a robotics group of Shahjalal University of Science & Technology, Bangladesh. The team was supervised by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal. Bangladesh Science Fiction Society funded for making this humanoid robot Ribo. Ribo was first appeared in public on 11 December 2015 in a Science Fiction Festival held at the Public Library, Shahbag.
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