Nao was built to resemble a miniature human being.
A Stanford University study concluded that humanoid robots arouse people. When a human-looking robot instructed a number of individuals to touch it in intimate places, the individuals became somewhat reluctant, their body responding to the gesture as it would have during an interaction with another human being.
In order to test the human emotional response when individuals are put in the sensitive position of touching a robot in intimate places, the Stanford team used Nao, a human-looking robot built by Japan’s Aldebaran Robotics. And it seems humanoid robots arouse people, but not in a good way.
For the experiment, the researchers programmed Nao to instruct people to touch various parts of its body. When they did what they were asked, the robot explained to them what the medical term for the respective place is and what function it completes.
But among the usual places like arms, legs, head, and back, Nao inserted a few unconventional ones, like crotch, eyes, and buttocks.
The participants were fitted with special sensors that monitored the amounts of electrical activity in their body. This allowed the team to measure how much the volunteers started to sweat when they were put in the uncomfortable situation. The sweat was used as a measure of unit for the emotional response.
At first, when Nao asked the volunteers to touch his arm or leg, they did do without second guessing the request. But when the humanoid robot prompted them to touch its crotch, most of them were aroused, in the sense that they became more alert.
Furthermore, when the unusual demand was made, almost all of the people who participated in the study hesitated before acting out on the request. Moreover, one of the participants refused to comply with the request, considering it too much of a taboo.
Even tough touching a robot’s crotch is no different than plugging in your computer, the individuals that were asked to do it reacted as they were about to touch the private parts of another human being.
This reaction is mostly due to the fact that Neo is shaped like a miniature human being. When interacting with machinery that is built to look like a human, the people unconsciously gives it more human attributes.
Upon realizing that humanoid robots arouse people when they ask them to touch intimate places, the researchers want to extend their research. The next step is testing human emotional responses when individuals are faced with non-humanoid robots.
Image source: YouTube
