A study predicts smooth interaction between humans and robots

BEGIN ARTICLE PREVIEW: According to a new study by Tampere University in Finland, making eye contact with a robot may have the same effect on people as eye contact with another person. The results predict that interaction between humans and humanoid robots will be surprisingly smooth. With the rapid progress in robotics, it is anticipated that people will increasingly interact with so called social robots in the future. Despite the artificiality of robots, people seem to react to them socially and ascribe humane attributes to them. For instance, people may perceive different qualities – such as knowledgeability, sociability, and likeability – in robots based on how they look and/or behave. Previous surveys have been able to shed light on people’s perceptions of social robots and their characteristics, but the very central question of what kind of automatic reactions social robots evoke in us humans has remained unanswered. Does interacting wi