Howdy from ICDL, Bloomington, IN

It is just after 4:30ESST, and I have now delivered my talk at the ICDL conference so the pressure is off. The standard of talks has been extremely high and I was SO nervous before my talk, I was shivering and having to clench lest I let rip !! In fact I was up at 4 this morning working on my presentation so I am knackered now! (and we dont finish till 10pm - 18 hours of intellectual overload!!)

In the end the talk went really well. I have had a lot of really positive comments about it (from Jun Tani, Max Lungarella, Koh Hosada, Shimon Edelman, Giorgio Metta to name just a few) and I think, somehow, I pulled it off. It was really strange because this was the first time that I've given a talk to such a large audience. Its a single strand conference and I think all the participants of ICDL were present - this is due, I think , to the timing of my talk just before one of the main Keynote speeches, not to them coming along to our talk as such!

In any case, it is done now and I can relax and enjoy the rest of the conference.

I will try to post my talk on my website soon, maybe without the video. This reminds me that I really need to revamp my website. Manyana!

The man in black

I am sat watching the man in black - no not the inimitable Mr J. Cash, but the venerable Japanese roboticist Professor Ishiguro-San.

I love Japanese robotics, its always so technically competent but rarely tells us much about human cognition and human social interaction. However, Ishiguro-san appears to be talking about social interaction, but I am not sure of his point - it is all so pre-programmed and designed. The intelligence is in the designer, not the builder. Mind you the robot is hot! ;)

There are exceptions though - two talks before a truely original Japanese robotics research gave us his view. Heideki Kozima-san showed Keepon. Not complicated, just a couple of squashy balls with eyes and nose. And yet, it really coerces true emotive and empathic responses from children (bot normally developing and autistic) and adults (the whole auditorium laughed and cooed at the right time).

more from ICDL, Bloomington IN soon