A collaborative
research team has found humanoid robotics and computer avatars could help
rehabilitate people suffering from social disorders such as schizophrenia or
social phobia. It is thanks to the theory of similarity, which suggests that it
is easier to interact socially with someone who looks, behaves or moves like
us. Researchers from the University of Bristol, in collaboration with
colleagues at the Universities of Exeter, Montpellier and Naples Federico II,
have developed a system to enable a robot or computer avatar to interact with a
patient whilst playing a version of the mirror game, in which two players try
to copy each other's motion whilst playing with coloured balls that can move
horizontally on a string. Initially the avatar is like an alter ego, created to
look and move like the patient to enhance his or her feelings of attachment.
Over time the
avatar is slowly altered to become less similar, therefore helping with social
rehabilitation. The results show that players sharing similar movement
features, or motor signature, interact and co-ordinate better. This can be used
for rehabilitation of patients with serious social disorders as an avatar can
be created to act like an alter ego, programmed to look and move like the
patient to enhance his or her feelings of attachment. The research used the
principles of dynamical systems and feedback control theory to embed the avatar
with enough 'intelligence' to synchronise and respond to the motion of the
human player. The researchers now wish to build on the technology and set-up
multiple human-machine interaction for social rehabilitation and make groups of
people and avatars interact with each other to perform joint tasks together.
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