Designers and animators have unique expertise in the application of social observations and findings to the design of movement, acoustics, aesthetics, personality and behaviour in an embodied medium. To animate, and the related words, animation, animated and animator all derive from the Latin verb, animare, which means 'to give life to'. In the context of robotics, this involves the design and programming of physical and emotional attributes in order to create the illusion of life, increase emotional affordance and signal intent. Trans-disciplinary teams that incorporate theory, practice and expertise unique to the fields of animation and design can contribute to the formulation of new methodologies in the field of robotics and support positive human-robot interaction. This presentation will discuss a case study applying animation and design expertise to increase emotional affordance in Haru, a prototype desktop robot.

face  Speaker: Prof. Deborah Szapiro  

Biografia: Deborah Szapiro is an award-winning designer, animator and academic who teaches in the School of Design at the University of Technology Sydney. Her research looks to animation's potential as an agent for cultural resilience, social change and innovation, and explores the expanding creative territory and alternative contexts that newer technologies open up for the application of animation theory and practice. She is currently working on a multi-year funded research project with the Honda Research Institute-Japan which explores the application of animation and design systems for increasing emotional affordance in artificial agents, in particular in social robotics. Deborah has presented workshops on the subject in Spain, Korea, Australia and Japan.