Scientists have developed a robot comedian to test what makes audiences laugh.
The humanoid has been delivering gags alongside stand-up performers in the first experiment of its kind. It is part of a study by researchers at Queen Mary University of London into how comedians “work” live audiences.
The life-sized robot, called RoboThespian, has been competing at the Barbican this week against stand-up comics Tiernan Douieb and Andrew O’Neill.
Professor Pat Healey said RoboThespian had a “great” opening night. Prof Healey, an expert in human interaction and a member of Queen Mary’s Cognitive Science Research Group, said: “It will take time but I think robots performing stand-up will come.
“Using robots allows us to experiment with the gestures, movements and expressions comedians use and test their effects on audience responses. RoboThespian, programmed by PhD student Kleomenis Katevas, uses computer vision and audio processing to detect how each audience member is responding. The machine uses this information to tailor who it talks to and how it delivers each joke programmed into it so every performance is unique.
Douieb said of working with a robot: “It was a very strange experience — he’s got a deep man’s voice and moves his arms and body around. Some jokes fell flat because he didn’t have the timing or pronounced words wrong. He did get quite a few laughs though, so if he upstages us again we can pull out his plug.”
