The Robots are Coming

Is this the year that geeks take over the design world? You might think so, judging by "Design Life Now: National Design Triennal 2006," which runs until July 29 at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City. On display are more than 100 of the most inventive works from the past three years, ranging from new graphics for prescription pill bottles to wardrobes for Madame Butterfly. The exhibit is meant to showcase recent design feats, but it feels futuristic, with a prominent pack of robotic dogs and sci-fi humanoids coming to life among the customary displays of architectural models and modernist furniture.

"The two can reside very comfortably together," says Matilda McQuaid, deputy curatorial director. "After all, in a lot of high technology there's a craftlike involvement of the hand that's often overlooked."

Some of the robots exist simply to amuse. Montreal's WowWee Ltd., for example, used technology that trickled down from the military and NASA to create Robosapien, a cartoonish humanoid with cutting-edge capabilities. Standing around 61 cm tall, he can perform 80 functions, including disco dancing, kicking and kung fu.

Not everybody loves a show-off, of course. Natalie Jeremijenko, assistant professor at the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego, says we should use robots to find creative solutions to the world around us rather than seeking a pleasing yap and wag at the push of a button. Working with teams of high school students, she tricks out toy robots — she calls them "feral robot dogs" — with all-terrain wheels and pollution sensors in their noses and sends them into landfills and industrial areas to search for toxins. These are robots with a social conscience. "Suddenly the students, who a few weeks earlier were tentative about taking apart these products, are in a position to reimagine our environmental and technical future," says Jeremijenko.

To varying degrees, all the robots on display imitate the look and behavior of living creatures, a form of engineering known as biomimicry. A robot designed by David Hanson, president and director of Dallas-based Hanson Robotics, to look like Albert Einstein can hold a plausible conversation (it understands 130,000 words) accompanied by convincing hand gestures. Its subtle facial expressions are facilitated by Frubber, a patented polymer that simulates facial skin.

"This moment is the Kitty Hawk of androids," Hanson says. "We're seeing the arrival of conversational robots that can walk in our world. It's a golden age of invention." Can conscious robots be far off?