the cutest robot

Keepon is a small creature-like robot designed to interact with children by directing attention and expressing emotion. Keepon's minimal design makes its behaviors easy to understand, resulting in interactions that are enjoyable and comfortable—particularly important in our research on human social development.
Keepon has soft rubber skin, cameras in its eyes, and a microphone in its nose.

Rhythmic human-robot social interaction

Human social behavior shares much in common with dance. Our speech, as well as the movement of our body, head, and hands, is periodic and rhythmic. Social scientists such as William S. Condon and Adam Kendon have identified interactional synchrony as a phenomenon that plays an important role in the regulation and coordination of movements, vocalizations, and other social cues. We have been developing technology to allow robots like Keepon to synchronize with these social rhythms in their interactions. We believe that rhythmic synchrony is as important for establishing engagement, rapport, and comfort between a robot and a person as it is between people.

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