As robotic platforms are designed for human robot interaction applications, a full body sense of touch, or “sensitive skin,” becomes important. The Huggable is a new type of therapeutic robotic companion based upon relational touch interactions. The initial use of neural networks to classify the affective content of touch is described.

We discuss the detection limits and current status of a uniform survey of SDSS I for ultra-faint Milky Way dwarf galaxies. We present the properties of two new, low surface brightness Milky Way companions discovered as a result of this survey. One of these companions is the Ursa Major dwarf, the newest dwarf spheroidal companion to the Milky Way and the lowest luminosity galaxy yet known. Ursa ...

Virtual companions that interact with users in a socially complex environment require a wide range of social skills. Displaying curiosity is simultaneously a factor to improve a companion’s believability and to unobtrusively affect the user’s activities over time. Curiosity represents a drive to know new things. It is a major driving force for engaging learners in active learning. Existing rese...

COMPANIONS is an EU project that aims to change the way we think about the relationships of people to computers and the Internet by developing a virtual conversational ‘Companion’. This is intended as an agent or ‘presence’ that stays with the user for long periods of time, developing a relationship and ‘knowing’ its owners preferences and wishes. The Companion communicates with the user primar...

The Companions Hybrid-World model defines a new methodology for dialogue. Previous systems were based on a closed world assumption whereby the knowledge of the dialogue system is stored in a knowledgebase and used throughout the conversation. The Hybrid-World model is still based around a knowledgebase (which is used throughout the interaction with the user) but if the user starts talking about...

Current detection methods of planetary companions do not allow retrieving their spectral information properties. The method of Differential Interferometry has the potential to complement such information by comparing interferometric observables in various spectral channels. We outline the basic aspects of this method and how it can soon be realised by the Mid-infrared Interferometric instrument...

We present the results of a HST/NICMOS coronagraphic survey for the direct detection of substellar companions within the young TW Hydrae and Tucana Associations. At the distance of these associations, the lower mass limit of detection, based on models, is well into the high mass planet region for separations > 30 AU . Results presented here include spectra and proper motion verification of two ...

We analyze the photometry of 121 OGLE stars with periodic transit events for the presence of ellipsoidal light variations, which indicate the presence of massive companions. We find that over 50% of objects may have stellar companions , mostly among the short period systems. In our Table 1 stars with no measurable ellipsoidal variability are marked as the prime candidates for planetary searches...

We present a family of Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) using Talking Head technology, along with a program of associated research and user trials. Whilst antecedents of our current ECAs include “chatbots” desgined to pass the Turing Test (TT) or win a Loebner Prize (LP), our current agents are task-oriented Teaching Agents and Social Companions. The current focus for our research includes...