Robots have been to Mars, and they’ve been to the deepest part of the oceans – places that human beings have yet to visit.
Yet the place where robots are now beginning to arrive that could have the greatest impact on the human race may well be our living rooms.
That arrival could well happen sooner than later if Alex Rose has his way.
Rose has created and continues to refine his ‘Air Parrot’, a small robot that he said can be adapted to do everything from acting as a companion for the elderly (or just lonely) to working as a tutor for your children.
“The Parrot has two cameras, and, through its facial recognition software, it can learn to recognize people and interact with them on a more personal level,” said Rose. “It has movable joints and will actually turn and look at you when you say its name. It can look at you and tilt its head left and right, and it can talk very fluently. It feels like you’re talking to a person.”
Oh, before we go any further, it would be worth mentioning that Alex Rose is 12 years old.
Rose explained that he has been working on his Air Parrot for the past two years and that it started out as a school project. His teacher had assigned the class the task of creating a display of some kind to augment their study of wildlife and animal awareness.
“I didn’t feel like doing just a collage or illustrations and stuff, so I made Parrot as a robot that could tell you any bird facts that you could think of. You could ask it about a type of bird, and it would tell you everything there is to know about it,” Rose said.
Since that time Rose has been developing and refining his creation. One iteration of the Parrot can act as a teacher.
“You can talk back and forth with it, and it has the whole lesson plan and can help you with your schoolwork,” he said.
“The ingenuity and innovation that this young man possesses is remarkable,” said Saanich Mayor, Dean Murdock. “He made an appointment to see me and came in with his creations and I was just blown away. He also has an idea for an infallible ‘docking station’ for recreational facilities where people could park their bikes. The docking system would lock the bike into place and make it impossible to steal.”
That last idea came to Alex as he often rides his bike to the local recreation facilities and noticed that the current locking systems were, well, imperfect.
Amanda Rose, Alex’s mother, said that her son has always been interested in technology and that at the age of five or six, he would take his father’s cell phones apart to discover how the cameras worked.
“That was obviously not a great thing, but you had to admire his curiosity,” said Amanda Rose. “He’s now become our tech support person in the home and actually redesigned the website for my husband’s business.”
And, in case the idea of a 12-year-old developing artificial intelligence robots raises some nervous thoughts in your mind, Rose said that he’s aware of some of the problems of robotics and AI technology.
He is aware of Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics and has taken steps to incorporate some of the ethical cautions in his machines.
“For example, Air Parrot will not listen in to conversations unless you call upon it to do so and can’t record or transmit your conversations to somewhere else in cyberspace without your permission,” Rose said.
The Parrot, it seems, also has a bit of a sense of humour.
Here is a portion of our interaction with the robot
Alex: “Hello Parrot.”
Parrot: “Hello Alex. How can I help you today?”
Alex: “Tell us a little about yourself.”
Parrot: “My name is Air Parrot and I’m a robot designed by boy genius, Alex Rose.”
Alex (interrupting): I don’t know why you have to call me a genius all the time, I’ve asked you not to.”
Parrot: “Sorry about that. I’ll remember to skip that part next time. Anyway, I love techno music, red is my favourite colour, and my eyes look like little O’s on the screen. They can be pretty expressive, don’t you think?”
Parrot (continuing): “The Air Parrots love sharing virtual hugs – it’s how we show we care – and we all have the same name, which makes us laugh sometimes.”
Rose is almost entirely self-taught in the fields of technology and innovation, gaining most of his knowledge from watching online tutorials and lectures designed for a far older audience.
“He can become super-fixated on certain topics,” said his mother. “He’ll watch super complicated coding videos and he’s been doing that since he was five or six years old.”
Rose is currently taking pre-orders for his Air Parrot ($539) and hopes to be able to start shipping the units to customers within the year, once he can start production of the units.
He continues to refine the units, creating a system by which they can interact with each other.
In the meantime, Alex’s parents continue to support his projects and do their best to nurture his natural talent and curiosity.
“Yes, I know that we probably have a genius on our hands, and I’ll admit it’s been a challenge at times. But I’m certain that he’ll do some incredible things in the future.”
