OK, Computer...

From the Department of Irritating Technology:

If you're happy, the robot knows it

And warms up its laser cannon. But I digress...

I hang my head and sink into my chair dejectedly. As I slouch, the computer monitor in front of me tilts forward and drops low to almost touch the desk, mimicking my gloomy posture. When I perk up and straighten my back, the computer spots the change and the monitor cheerfully swings forward and upward.

Meet RoCo, the world's first expressive computer (.mov video). Inhabiting a back room in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, the robotic computer has a monitor for a head and a simple LCD screen for a face. It expresses itself using its double-jointed neck, which is equipped with actuators that shift the monitor up and down, tilt it forward and back and swivel it from side to side, rather like Pixar's animated lamp. An attached camera can detect when its user moves, allowing RoCo to adjust its posture accordingly.

Unveiled at a human-robot interaction conference in Washington DC on 11 March, RoCo's creators hope that by responding to a user's changes in posture, people might be more likely to build up a "rapport" with the computer that will make sitting at a desk all day a little more enjoyable. The MIT researchers also believe that by tuning into users' moods, the robot might help them get their work done more effectively.

Is that really the key to making sitting at a computer more enjoyable? I don't want a "rapport" with my computer. I just want it to function fast and reliably. How about computers that don't suddenly forget all their settings? How about software that doesn't crash every five seconds? How about making Microsoft Word so that it doesn't have utter contempt for the user? How about not having to restyle the same bullet in PowerPoint 50 times?

I'm better now.

In a related story, Microsoft is working on what it is calling SaltInWounds technology that senses when the user is in a bad mood and does everything it can to make it worse.