Daily Cup of Tech

We often regard technology rather dispassionately.  It is to be used and discarded.  Rarely do we, as a human race, have compassion for our iPod or computer.

Tweenbots are the exception.

An experiment by Kacie Kinzer, a student at NYU in the ITP program, she wanted to see what would happen if she created a small robot and sent it on a journey.  The robot itself is a relatively simple device, basically a toy motor and chassis with a cardboard body.  Each robot was fitted with a small flag that asked whomever helped it to get it to its destination.

Here is what Kacie wrote:

In New York, we are very occupied with getting from one place to another. I wondered: could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it? More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the city itself? To answer these questions, I built robots.

Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.

Kacie had low expectations for what would happen.  But she was pleasantly surprised.

The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”

I find it absolutely amazing that not only did this little device survive, it completed its mission!  I think this says a lot more about the state of the human condition than it does about the technology!

Here is a little video of the tweenbot and some of its benefactors in action.

If you were to encounter something like this, how would you react?

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