Meet Autom - your weight loss coach. (Yes! Besides Dr. Kidd, Autom will be there to meet us as well.) For many decades, movies like Blade Runner, Bicentennial Man, and I, Robot, have made us believe that someday, human interaction with our machine friends can be as seamless as it is with our human counterparts. Is the future finally here? If so, how real is this? What are the applications for social robots and how do we make them? We are delighted to have one of our Media Lab alum, Dr. Kidd, who specializes in human-robot interaction to help us decode the mystery.
Kidd Biography
Dr. Cory Kidd is CEO and founder of Intuitive Automata, a health care company that creates interactive coaches to help people address the challenges of making lasting change. Dr. Kidd received his M.S. and Ph.D. at the MIT Media Lab in human-robot interaction. While there, he conducted studies that showed the advantages of using a physical robot over screen-based interactions. He conducted an extensive study showing the efficacy of his weight loss coach in helping people to diet and did work in local nursing homes with robotic companions for elderly individuals.
Prior to his work at MIT, Dr. Kidd received his BS in Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. While there he was a part of the Aware Home Research Initiative, a focused research effort that was looking for ways to allow older people to live in their homes longer. He managed that research project and taught courses on related technologies.
