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(10) Pub. NO.:US 200710217586 A1 Marti Et Al (19) United States (12) Patent Application Publication (10) pub. NO.:US 200710217586 A1 Marti et al. (43) Pub. Date: Sep. 20,2007 (54) ANIMATRONIC CREATURES THAT ACT AS Publication Classification INTERMEDIARIES BETWEEN HUMAN USERS AND A TELEPHONE SYSTEM (51) Int. C1. (75) Inventors: Stefan Johannes Walter Marti, San H04M 3/42 (2006.01) Francisco, CA (US); Christopher (52) U.S. C1. ........................................................ 3791201.01 Schmandt, Winchester, MA (US) Correspondence Address: (57) ABSTRACT CHARLES G. CALL 215 W. HURON ST APT 2 An animatronic telephone agent consisting of a communi- CHICAGO, IL 60610-3331 (US) cations subsystem connected to a wired or wireless tele- phone network for receiving incoming telephone calls, and (73) Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a robotic automaton coupled to the communications sub- Cambridge, MA system and responsive to incoming telephone calls for (21) Appl. No.: 111601,386 performing different movements that provide non-verbal visual cues to a human observer that are indicative of the (22) Filed: Nov. 18, 2006 status of each incoming call. The automaton preferably takes the form of an animatronic device that has movable append- Related U.S. Application Data ages and a face with at least movable eyes or eyelids and which provides visual cues by making gestures andor (60) Provisional application No. 601738,271, filed on Nov. exhibiting facial expressions that are indicative of the receipt 19, 2005. and progress of incoming calls. Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 1 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 2 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 3 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 sSystem standby cIncoming Call PPoll conversation size PPoll talk listen ratio No Ringing CGet Caller ID Caller unknown I I Would you like to leave a ( message or do you need I Record choice Fig. 3 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 4 of 15 "Here she is" "Sorry, she "Sorry, she can't be f- is bothered unavailable" now" Please record your message and then hang up Record voice message Fig. 4 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 5 of 15 Fig. 5 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 6 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 Please record your message now and I 1 will try and alert him 601 + Record voice Paw v Direct connection 61 1 Play* VIM 603 .Record VIM Answer No "She has v responded with" "Sorry, he did + not leave a reply. Play VIM answer Goodbye. + "Thank you for calling, Goodbye. I Fig. 6 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 7 of 15 a a $ B-FS- a LL w a V1= V w 7 I a al q Im L n d a n ? ii 4-l a Q I m -i= U 3 - U a CJ --r O- ,a&-@ 3 a A 0 A Cr 5? ddt' g 2 ul X E'IJ --5 Im F, --r -w d n [1 '2 I ,C-zdS c w C --- n daa u II Y n CI 0 a 4 L -- CI a C'JJ C'JJ ncr 0 E - a c 3 0 o a 0 12 I u Y --V bur V1 aw m UlZ a3 w -I CVIn daa g a - -C V d -- 2L d L-+ a 0-bm'4- LL L r Q d3 a, --as 42c q'= $ - a h 0 2 Z?r a -,L E in Q) F -- bn d n --m 0 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 8 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 9 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 10 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 11 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 12 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 13 of 15 US 200710217586 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 14 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 ( Manual servo control 1 Ieee~oolServo 1 Servo 2 Servo 3 Servo 4 Servo 5 Servo 6 Fig. 14 I Movement pattern sequencer 1 Only Loop selected 41 13'F 180 Rew R ec Stop ...................................... A 1 _I_( Speed 1K'% 1oox 1 Fig. 15 Patent Application Publication Sep. 20,2007 Sheet 15 of 15 US 200710217586 A1 Serial port communication Socket communication Host StdanMartiMo IF Addess. 192.168.0.101 Delay for Connectiont: 0 Active Connection[s) serial sending _Ll' J .' "" ""A117 I~istemgon port: 4500 Stopped acceptmg connecbons Llstenhg on pod: 4500 Manual servo control SOPW~accepling connections Se~vo1 Servo 2 Se~vo3 Sew 4 Servo 5 Servo 6 899999 1601 Sequence name Repet~t~on Speed 7-r- Movement pattern library parrot_lookingup.txl 173 190 1106 1113 191 191 'Just rl~png" bunny-brea~hmg1x1 Y Movement pattern sequencer bunny-headup txt -- - - ". I lncomlns burmy-~ook~garoundtxt f I - bumy-brealhrng trt 7 - Stop All! I 41 a bunny-headup t~t RW R=C bunny-lookmgaround trt 1 1 'Caner leavesmsQ ' bunny-lookmgaround txt A Speed w% hung up. bun"y_fallmQasleeptxl ~ovementpatern New 1 Save 1 1-e k Fig. 16 Sep. 20,2007 ANIMATRONIC CREATURES THAT ACT AS ing a set of pet-like or human-like movement behaviors in INTERMEDIARIES BETWEEN HUMAN USERS response to commands to provide non-verbal cues to the AND A TELEPHONE SYSTEM callee which indicate the status of the incoming call. A call processor receives and handles an incoming telephone call CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED from a caller directed to said callee and includes a call APPLICATIONS progress monitor for generating status signals that indicate the current status of the incoming call. An animatronic [0001] This application is a non-Provisional of U.S. patent command generator coupled to the call processor and to the application Ser. No. 601738,271 filed on Nov. 19, 2006, the interactive animatronic creature converts the status signals disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. into movement command signals which are delivered to the creature's mechanical actuators, causing it to perform COPYRIGHT AUTHORIZATION selected movement behaviors. [0002] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document [0008] An authoring subsystem is preferably included in contains material which is subject to copyright protection. the control system for creating and storing a sequence of said The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile movement command signals which, when delivered to a reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent creature's mechanical actuators, produces one of the move- disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office ment behaviors. The authoring subsystem includes a manual patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright "slider" control operable by a human developer for creating rights whatsoever. and storing a separate sequence of movement command Reference to Computer Program Listing Appendix signals for delivery to each actuator. The mechanical actua- tors to move at a speed that mimics the speed at which the [0003] A computer program listing appendix is stored on human developer moves the manual slider control. A each of two duplicate compact disks which accompany this sequence control is employed for repeatedly transmitting a specification. Each disk contains computer program listings selected previously created and stored sequence of said which illustrate implementations of the invention. The list- movement command signals to move an actuator, and for ings are recorded as ASCII text in IBM PCIMS DOS accepting modifications by the developer to the selected compatible files which have the names, sizes (in bytes) and stored sequence to thereby create a modified stored creation dates listed below: sequence. [0009] Sequences are preferably stored as named files in a command file library. The developer may select and com- File Name Bytes Created bine specific named data files from said command library to create named files containing combined sequences of move- ment commands. Two or more different animatronic crea- tures having- different behaviors may be coupled to the command generator which stores different sequences of said movement command signals- for each of the different ani- matronic creatures. The command generator responds to a given status signal by sending the set of movement com- mand that cause the specific creature to perform movements FIELD OF THE INVENTION that are indicative of the status specified by the given status [0004] This invention relates to interactive telephone call signal. In this way, the creatures may be interchanged processing systems and more particularly to a robotic without altering the function of the call progress monitoring automaton that assists a telephone user. program. [0010] The animatronic creatures typical have movable SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION appendages which can exhibit all or part of a behavior [0005] The following summary provides a simplified indicating a particular status condition. In addition, the introduction to some aspects of the invention as a prelude to creature typically has one or more movable eyes or eyelids the more detailed description that is presented later, but is and that can move to perform all or part of a desired not intended to define or delineate the scope of the invention. behavior. The creature also includes control inputs, such as manually operated switches, for accepting control inputs [0006] Today's cellphones are passive communication from a user, as well as a microphone and a speaker for portals. They are neither aware of our conversational set- exchanging spoken prompts and responses with the user. tings, nor of the relationship between caller and callee, and often interrupt us at inappropriate times. The present inven- [0011] The animatronic creature typically takes the form tion adds elements of human style social intelligence to our of a small wireless robotic stuffed animal in the form of a communication devices in order to make them more socially squirrel, bunny, or parrot that employs intuitive non-verbal acceptable to both a user and others who are near to and cues such as gaze and gestures to attract attention, instead of perhaps conversing with the user.
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