A Robotic Petting Zoo

Minimaforms presented Petting Zoo, an interactive display designed to respond to human touch and movement. Using a Kinect camera and software designed to respond with emotions, the exhibition provided three "pets" with three different patterns of responses and a basic machine learning allows each to develop behaviors based on input from the situation.As I watched the video, I started thinking about applications for the home. One of the highly prized visions many appliance companies are working towards is a home that interacts with the owner(s). While Siri is an interesting phone app, the XBox One is trying to automate your living room, and several companies want to provide mobile and/or voice control for our heating and cooling systems, the one thing they don't yet offer is anthropomorphic design.While the crew of the Enterprise (D and beyond, if you're interested) spoke to the air when interacting with Computer, I'm not certain everyone is as happy with a bodiless entity listening in on your orders. It seems something beyond an overlay would provide some interesting feedback, a signal the machine is listening and perhaps a non-verbal/tonal response to let you know the order was received and processed. Watching the waving and color-changing tendrils make me wonder how a design like this could be incorporated into the home.Each pet puts off a good amount of light and can change color, similar to the Phiips Hue bulb system. Could they be installed as lights or lamps, networked to receive certain controls? Would it be interesting to have a lamp that could blink blue when a call comes in from a friend or red when it's a family member? Could the camera watch your face to see when you lips are moving? Wouldn't it be cool if there were speakers and microphones in the end of each? If you answer the phone, the stalk twists towards your head so you can hear and be heard (while the system pauses the TV or turns down the music)? It could be more interesting than a fancy refrigerator or ultra-responsive coffee pot.