Diegosan the Robotic Toddler

On Tuesday, February 19, Cody L. and I presents Diegosan. Diegosan is a robotic toddler that was created to simulate they way in which children, specifically one year-old children, learn to interact with other humans through emotions. Diegosan is able to create multiple facial expressions and has 44 pneumatic joints.
I presented the con side to this technology. In order to study how one year-old children learn to interact with the world, other children will need to be involved in this study. I am concerned with this because there is an uncertainty of the psychological effects the study will have on the children. I am also very confused with how a one year-old child's learning can be simulated by this robot. If we do not know how they learn, how can we create something that learns like a child. Looking into the future, this technology could be used as a companion for only children and children with different mental syndromes like Autism or Aspergers. The psychological effect of this are unknown and have a very bad potential in my opinion. In the quotes within the prezi, Turkle shows how humans begin to bond with robots and lose a separation of interacting with humans and robots.

The Pros of DDR

     As an experienced Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) player, I was excited to be able to present this topic.  However, it may be interesting to know that when I was first (verbally) introduced to the concept of the game, I thought it sounded quite silly.  "Why wouldn't you just go dance in real life?" I thought.  Upon first trying the game myself, I became quickly interested in it, but was unable to complete even a single song at first.  But once I took my first steps, so to speak, things improved quickly.  But no matter my skill level, I've always found DDR to be fun, once I tried it!

     Hans B and I presented  the topic of human development via DDR together.  The key benefits that I discussed are: physical, rhythmic, and cerebral.  I mentioned the neuro-plasticity aspect of this game in relation to Maryanne Wolf's "Proust and the Squid", but did not include a quote, therefore I will mention one here.  Wolf writes:

"A system that can become streamlined through specialization and automatically has more time to think.  This is the miraculous gift of the reading brain."

I have found this to apply to the game of DDR because of the reading of the arrows.  I believe this could have some benefits outside the game.  Though DDR's style of dancing is much different than dancing in other public settings, the rhythmic and physical benefits in combination with this automaticity achieved from DDR could lead to being more confident in social dance settings.  Having that "time to think" once you make the change in style will not only alleviate any negative self-consciousness but also allow you to be more fully present.

So why not ditch the arrows and only play more realistic dance games with Xbox Kinect?  Well, I'm not actually trying to downplay newer games.  However, there is something to be said about the very structured straightforward gameplay of DDR.  By creating a set of rules, the player is actually allowed to be freer to push themselves physically.  Similarly, a piano player is not truly free to play the piano until they know something about tempo, rhythm, pitch, key signature, the positioning of hands, and time signature.  Even if you find the dance moves to be irrelevant, Dance Dance Revolution is certainly a fun way to contribute towards one's development.