Singaporean robot-designing couple welcomes own human creation
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[September 11, 2019] By
Travis Teo and Joseph Campbell
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singaporean robot creator Wong Choon Yue raises
his left hand and swipes it past a sensor in a high-five gesture.
Halfway across the room, a robot named EDGAR with an expressive face
made of polyethylene, two hands and a torso atop a trolley with wheels,
mimics the gesture, smacking its hand into that of Wong's wife and
colleague, Pang Wee Ching.
For the last six years, the couple has been developing EDGAR, short for
Expressions Display and Gesturing Avatar Robot, which lets people in
different locations transmit gestures and facial expressions to each
other.
They say their project is the next step in the field of communications,
adding to voice and video provided by applications such as Skype.
"Perhaps I have a child who is living overseas, and she misses my
cooking very much. What I can do with this technology is that I log onto
the robot where she is and I can use it to make her favorite Chinese
chicken rice," Wong said.
Their other autonomous robot, EDGAR-2, which is also built in humanoid
form, can answer questions and hold lengthy conversations.
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Singaporean robot creator Wong Choon Yue, his wife Pang Wee
Ching and son Gabriel pose with their robot named EDGAR,
short for Expressions Display and Gesturing Avatar Robot, at
a laboratory in Singapore September 8, 2019. Wong Choon Yue/Handout
via REUTERS.
"I think it's pretty cool," said university student Edora Kwak after chatting
with EDGAR-2 about a Malay folk song.
"I'd never imagine myself talking to a robot, and we actually held a pretty long
conversation."
For Pang and Wong, who met a decade ago on the job, their creations are akin to
children for whom they feel affection and pride.
"We want it to progress, to grow. It seems like there's a life in it," they
said, completing each other's sentences.
The couple welcomed a baby boy called Gabriel last month, and Pang, who
programed both EDGAR-1 and EDGAR-2, laughed at the idea of their robotic
creations inspiring how they will raise their human one, or vice-versa.
"Maybe when I take care of the baby and learn more about how human life works,
this can be applied to building the intelligence of the robot," she said.
(Reporting by Joseph Campbell and Travis Teo; Editing by Karishma Singh)
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