robot is making humans horny

 

Humanoid robot Nao has been programmed to ask participants to touch certain parts of its body. Photo: Reuters

Humans have a magnetic attraction to robots — so much so that some people become aroused when touching an android’s “intimate areas,” researchers found.
A team from Stanford University asked participants to touch 13 body parts of a robot called Nao while their non-dominant hands were fitted with sensors that measured skin conductance and reaction time, Wired.co.uk reported.
The 10 volunteers — four female, six male — responded to commands from Nao that had been programmed to tell them to touch any of its body parts.
“Sometimes I’ll ask you to touch my body and sometimes I’ll ask you to point to my body,” the 2-foot-tall humanoid told them.
When they were asked to touch its “intimate areas” — including its buttocks and genitals — they were “more emotionally aroused when compared to touching parts like the hands and neck,” the study found.
No such responses were measured when the volunteers were asked only to point.
“Social robots can elicit tactile responses in human physiology, a result that signals the power of robots, and should caution mechanical and interaction designers about positive and negative effects of human-robot interactions,” the researchers concluded.

Tourists interact with Nao at a media preview in Japan.Photo: Reuters

“Our work shows that robots are a new form of media that is particularly powerful,” said Jamy Li, co-author of the study. “Social conventions regarding touching someone else’s private parts apply to a robot’s body parts as well.”
The findings about Nao, which was developed by Aldebaran Robotics, will be presented at the 66th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Japan in June.
“In future, robots with human forms may assist us in personal and public spaces,” the scientists said. “What kinds of relationships will people develop with these robots? While they are clearly not human, social conventions such as body accessibility may apply to robots as well.”
But an activist with the Campaign Against Sex Robots told Wired that arousal was “more than ‘skin conductance’ and ‘reaction time.’”
“Prior to any of the participants touching a robot, they’ve touched themselves and other bodies, and thought an awful lot about it,” said Kathleen Richardson, a De Montfort University research fellow.
“I think the paper proves more of a Pavlovian dog view of human sexuality, but human desire is more complex than this. It may have triggered a physiological response because it felt dirty or dangerous.”