ASSIGNMENT:
Read: Julian E. Barnes, "Creating the Soul of a Robotic Dog," technology
section, New York Times, February 4, 2001:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/04/technology/04TOYS.html
The New York Times online is available for free, though registration is
required to obtain a user name and password. (They want you to get the
right ads--or have the right ads get you!--when you read it.)
This article discusses the creation of robotic dog that shows emotion.
Indeed, one quote from the article is that "... you can take something that
is robotic and give it humanity."
FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT YOU ARE TO:
(1) Select a product that currently has no robotic aspects.
(2) Describe robotic features that might be added to give it motion and why.
(3) Assume that voice recognition software can be added: which words should
it recognize and why.
(4) Assume that the product will made to make sounds. Which sounds should
it make and why?
(5) Assume that the product will produce odors. Which scents should the
product emit, when and why?
(6) What additional thing might I assign that I have not, if I use this
assignment next term?
(7) What products might this enhanced product now compete with that
previously it did not?
(8) Speculate on various prices that various versions of your enhanced
product might sell at?
(9) How might this enhanced product be marketed?
(10) What sorts of things might come next after the ideas you have made have
been instituted:
(a) in one year;
(b) in five years;
(c) in ten years;
(d) in twenty years;
(e) in fifty years;
(f) in one hundred years.
(11) Which products did you initially consider but decide against. Why did
you decide against them?
POST YOUR ANSWERS TO THE COURSE BULLETIN BOARD WITH THE PHRASE "ROBOTIC SOUL
OF A [insert the product that you did here]" IN THE SUBJECT FIELD. YOU
SHOULD OVER THE NEXT WEEK COMMENT ON THE SOUL POSTINGS OF AT LEAST FIVE
OTHER STUDENTS (YOU ARE NOT LIMITED TO FIVE THOUGH).
------------------------
Colleagues: You are welcome to use this though I would like some
acknowledgement for crafting it. If you have any ideas for improving it or
adding to it please let me know. Indeed if you like it let me know. If you
do use it with your student's, let me know how it worked and what some of
the more remarkable answers involved. Remember: always send comments for
the list to
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU and personal ones for just me to
either
WANKELC@STJOHNS.EDU or
CXX@BELLATLANTIC.NET.
By the bye, if you are slow on this the article might only be available for
a fee by the time you get to it.
Cybercollegially,
Charles Wankel
St. John's University, New York
wankelc@stjohns.edu