Ibn Sina: The world's first arabic-language dialogic android, part of a unique interactive theatre
Ibn Sina (or Avicenna, as he is usually called in the West) lived in the eleventh century, and was one of the most famous polymaths of the region - having excelled in philosophy, the sciences, and primarily medicine. An amazing man which in many respects could be called the Leonardo of the East - who absorbed and extended upon Aristotle, Galen, and the knowledge of numerous other traditions. A man whose medical textbooks were the standard textbook in European universities even for two centuries after his death. The Ibn Sina robot is the world's first arabic-language dialogic android, which has capabilities of facial expressions, hand gestures, and speech recognition as well as synthesis in arabic. Furthermore, Ibn Sina is part of a unique interactive theatre installation - which consists of a stage populated with humans and robots, a big projection area behind them as well as a pseudo-3D holography filament in front, as well as multiple sensor systems. Thus, the theatre enables the co-participation of humans, robots, as well as virtual characters in the performance; as well as the tele-participation of remote humans through online virtual worlds, motion-capture-enabled robotic telepresence, and even EEG-driven brain-computer-interfacing. Enjoy the videos!
Public Appearances and Demonstrations
Ibn Sina has been exhibited at IEHE 2010 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as well as in GITEX 2009 in Dubai and IDEX 2009 in Abu Dhabi, and in various shopping malls. In total, more than 10000 people have seen him interact with humans, and more than and 500 people have interacted with him directly.
Selected Papers and Other Material
N. Mavridis and D. Hanson, "The IbnSina Center: An Augmented Reality Theater with Intelligent Robotic and Virtual Characters", IEEE RoMAN09 (click here for pdf)
C. Christoforou, N. Mavridis et al.,"Android tele-operation through Brain-Computer Interfacing: A real-world demo with non-expert users", IRIS 2010 (click here for pdf)
N. Mavridis, E. Machado et al.,"Real-time Teleoperation of an Industrial Robotic Arm Through Human Arm Movement Imitation", IRIS 2010