Meet Irony Man. This 30-centimetre-high robot combines nonchalant facial expressions with deadpan delivery in a way that its inventors hope will make it appear more natural. By incorporating irony into its dialogue, they say it could be used to gently break bad news and persuade people to do things they otherwise wouldn鈥檛.
鈥淭hink of a robot in the role of a life style advisor that feels the user should be more active and has to convey this message without appearing rude,鈥� says Elisabeth Andr茅 at the University of Augsburg, Germany.
The technology is based on a computer program that analyses the best response the robot should make in a normal conversation and then flips words and adds verbal emphasis like overstatement to introduce irony. (When the intended meaning of a phrase is opposite to the literal meaning.) So, in a conversation about the weather, the phrase 鈥淚 hate raining. I usually have a bad mood when it rains鈥� becomes 鈥淪uper! I utterly love raining鈥�, with, say, unusual elongated stress on the word utterly and a smile.
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In tests, a dozen students said they preferred their conversations with Irony Man to those with a standard robot. They rated it consistently higher on qualities described as likable, integrating, appealing and motivating.
The work was presented at the聽International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems in Montreal.
The next step is to find a way to make the technology bite its tongue when required. 鈥淭he robot is not yet able to determine whether and when there is a good moment to employ irony,鈥� Andr茅 says. 鈥滻t may happen that the robot generates a funny utterance, but the user is irritated.鈥� Imagine the possibilities: Great! You put a totally expected item in the bagging area. Eye roll.
