There is just something creepy about robots that already look like us thanks to the advancement in synthetic flesh technology, but to have a digital robot? That’s also rather creepy when you think about it, and this latest virtual robot is capable of counting simply through the linking of its body to numbers, similar to how humans do it. It seems that the so-called SNARC (spatial-numerical association of response codes) effect has proven itself time and again, where research has shown that people do respond faster to a number using their left hand when the number is small, and when the number ends up large, they will do so with their right hand.
In order for scientists to figure out how such a connection comes about, Rucinski and his colleagues decided that there is no better way than to enlist the help of a virtual personality of a child, where this digital simulation of the humanoid robot iCub will be exposed to processes which in the end, might be able to help it form connections, similar to what happens to humans. I guess robots will soon end up with a frown on the forehead, digital or otherwise, no?