All The Feels! Honda Debuts Their 3EA18 Empathy Robot
Imagine having a robot in studio that can follow you around, understand your every emotion, And maybe make you feel better. That's not too far into the future Take a look!
You're looking at the 3EA18. It's not on the market yet...it's is just a concept - but an interesting one. It's an empathy robot. The idea behind it is that it represent the future of robots. That it can understand your needs and anticipate your needs..before you even have them.
And eventually they want to get it so it can share feelings with you!
The robot can sense what you're saying, what you're doing, and it has over 30 different emotions it can show on its face. The idea is that it can be like a pet living in your home, so I asked Honda, if that's the case, why not just go to the pound and get a dog for a fraction of the price? Pete Wendt, Advanced Product Planning Honda had the answer, "Honda's vision for robotics is really that they're just side-by-side with people helping them do the tasks that maybe they don't want to do, so it's really an assistant more than a true pet."
As fascinating as all of this is, if a robot can understand you, can it manipulate you? Many think the answer is yes. And there is genuine fear among some in SIlicon Valley that at one point robots are going to turn on us. Elon Musk is a big believer in this.