Robot Animals

In the spirit of research, I found this an interesting article. It talks about using robotic squirrels to infiltrate the squirrel population and learn about their communication techniques, social queues, and survival instincts.

“Animals and humans are all affected by behaviors, body postures and signals from each other that we may not be aware of.” Sarah Partan, Asst. Professor in Animal Behavior at Hampshire College

Obviously, I don’t think we are going to build robots that mimic humans and get responses, but it is often hard to fully understand the situation response that you get especially since so much of an individual response if framed by past experiences. But, that being said, my one takeaway (other than general interest) was the need for thinking holistically about multiple channels (e.g., web and chat) or sonic branding (i.e., the voice delivering the message).