Hitachi EMIEW2 - A Robot With A Sense Of Humor. No Kidding!

Knock knock. Who's there?

Japanese engineers recently unveiled a robot with a sensor, which was smart enough to understand when its cheeky jokes had fallen flat. The small-sized roller-skating robot Hitachi EMIEW2 (acronym for Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate), is capable enough to engage in a brief conversation with a human being without any prior given script. It works the same way many search algorithms do - by picking up on the keywords. Take for example, it shall pick 'how many' for a sentence, 'how many' being the key words, then confirms the inquiry before delivering an answer.

The engineers at Hitachi have programmed the bot to understand even non-verbal human responses like nods, and it's via this comprehension that the robot is able to determine if the interlocutor found its joke amusing or not.



In a demonstration held at Tokyo, the 80 centimeter tall device answered a question seeking the number of people working at Hitachi. It's answer "We have two swans" was puzzling, but not for long. It was then followed with "You got it? I'm kidding. We have about 800 people working here." Hitachi's Hisashi Ikeda agrees that while the robot's sense of humor is not as refined, its ability to comprehend reactions is an important step ahead. With this technology, he says, the robot can understand what a human means, even by just a gesture.

EMIEW2, states Hitachi, is intended in some way to be the office pet, and may even take up the role of a receptionist. Who knows if they're kidding or not.