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The Humintell Blog April 18, 2011

Deception Robots

Surveillance has been power boosted to a new level.

Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Laboratory has developed a “spybot”.  Ieee spectrum inside technology has the scoop.

Lockheed’s new robotic creation knows how to operate incognito around humans.  It actually listens for humans, guesses where they might be looking and then finds itself a hiding spot.

How can it be so sneaky, you ask?  It is equipped with a 3D laser scanner.  It also has an array of acoustic sensors that allow it to localize footsteps and voices.

Lockheed Martin’s robot is not the first of its kind; however, it is on technology’s cutting edge.  Georgia Tech also created a “spybot” , which uses deliberately deceptive tactics to fool other robots and humans.

Is covert robotics now emerging as power field of engineering?  This technology is unique because these robots can build a computer program of their surrounding s, incorporating information on line of sight so that it can covertly map its environment in 3D.

According to NewScientist.com , Brian Satterfield, lead engineer, stated that the robot was designed to operate within four constraints:  “ Avoiding visible detection by sentries of known locations, avoiding potential detection by sentries whose positions were unknown, avoiding areas in which the robot would have no means of escape and as this robot was designed to run at night, avoiding areas that were well lit”

Video of spybot:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Filed Under: Nonverbal Behavior, Science

The Humintell Blog April 14, 2011

Emotional Lethargy

Research has already determined that a side effect of Botox is the inability to fully express emotions.  New research, according to msnbc.com , reveals anther side effect: the inability to fully feel emotions.

Botox is made of a toxic protein called Botulinum toxin , and it temporarily paralyzes muscles that cause wrinkles.  Botox’s paralyzing side effects mean no wrinkles but also no movement of those muscles.

Scientists believe that facial expressions themselves may influence emotional experiences.  If a person with limited ability to make facial expressions may also have a limited ability to feel emotions.

Researcher Joshua Davis, a psychologist at Barnard College in New York, commented, “With Botox, a person can respond otherwise normally to an emotional event, a sad movie scene, but will have less movement in the facial muscles that have been injected, and therefore less feedback to the brain about such facial expressivity.”

In his study called “Botox Linked to Weakened Ability to Experience Emotions“, Davis and his colleagues showed groups of individuals emotionally charged videos before and after they were injected with either Botox or Restylane (the control group), which adds filler but doesn’t limit the movement of the muscles.

Compared to the control group, the Botox participants experienced a decrease in the strength of emotional experience and responded less strongly to mildly positive clips after the Botox injections rather than before.

This study suggests that feedback from facial expressions to the brain can influence the overall experience of emotions.  The simple act of smiling can help make a person feel happy.

Take a look at the video below about a woman who has had 52 cosmetic procedures and read about how botox has also been suggested as a cure to depression.

Filed Under: Science

The Humintell Blog April 12, 2011

Lie to Me is filled with “Lies to You” -Dr. Maureen O’Sullivan

Some of you may know the late Dr. Maureen O’Sullivan, who was a Professor Emeritus of the University of San Francisco.

Dr. O’Sullivan is widely known for her work with Dr. Paul Ekman on the “Wizards Project”, where they identified Truth Wizards. Truth Wizards are those that are exceptionally good at detecting deception. One of these truth wizards, Eyes for Lies, has a popular blog where she comments on current new events.

We came across this informative lecture by Dr. O’Sullivan where she speaks about the TV show “Lie to Me” and her career researching human emotion and lie detection.

Humintell director Dr. Matsumoto has also done research with Dr. O’Sullivan. Notably in 2008, they co-wrote a chapter in the Handbook of Emotion called Facial Expressions of Emotion. The chapter was written with other researchers Dr. Dacher Keltner, Dr. Michelle N. Shiota, and Dr. Mark Frank. You can read the complete chapter here.

Thanks to Steve for the link!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Filed Under: Deception, Nonverbal Behavior, Science

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