Virtual Eye Pod, 2018. As part of their on-going research into self-driving vehicles Jaguar Land Rover are employing self-driving pods that have large ‘virtual eyes’ to interact with other road users. The intelligent pods run autonomously on a fabricated street scene in Coventry, while the behaviour of pedestrians is analysed as they wait to cross the road. Research suggests that 63% of pedestrians worry about how safe it is to cross the road with the advent of autonomous vehicles. The ‘eye pods’ have been designed to help work out how much information self-driving cars should share with users or pedestrians to ensure that people trust the technology.

I think something more … robotic … could convey the same information without falling into the Uncanny Valley like these do.

[Image description: a photoset of a large, truck-like autonomous vehicle at the crosswalk of what looks like an underground garage or tunnel. The vehicle is painted white, orange, and black. On the front of the vehicle, just above the windshield, are mounted two, round, cartoonish, eyes. The first, second, and third pictures in the set show a woman with long blonde hair approach, and cross, the crosswalk; the vehicle’s eyes move to follow her. Description ends]

People using wheelchairs, trying to navigate crowds of other people, have a similar problem: being ignored, having people walk into our paths without warning, etc.. My aide has said that’s because people using wheelchairs are below the sight lines of most ambulatory people, so what should I expect?

But, funnily enough, ambulatory adults seem to have no problem at all making room for ambulatory children. My suspicion is that most normates put wheelchair users in the same mental category as robot cars: they forget that we are autonomous beings, capable of movement (and heavier than they realize, and not able to react to changes as quickly as they can).

So, awhile back (a search of my Dreamwidth Journal reveals it was just about nine years ago), I got the idea for mounting some sort of “puppet” with a moveable head, mounted at the eye line of the worse offenders in crowds (about 5 feet / 1.6 meters–typically an adult, able-bodied, male – surprise, surprise) that would turn in the direction I’m moving my chair… almost exactly like these “Eye Pod” vehicles.

In any case, as the person with the strongest vested interest in crowd control, having this falling into the Uncanny Valley is  exactly  what I want my puppet to do, if it makes people go: “…Oh… erg,” and back up half a step as I approach. 

My simplest idea is a to have the head be an emoji-like face – something the brain registers as “human” almost instantly.

My most elaborate idea is to have it be a fully automated dragon puppet, “perched” on the back of my chair, with a flexible neck, roaring sound effect, and a mouth that opens when it roars – to reveal long teeth, and glowing red lights in its mouth. Maybe even movable wings, so I could dope slap those fools who are being particularly obnoxious (ridiculously unrealistic and impractical … But a girl can dream).

Please please give me a world where a robot dragon can sit on top of a wheelchair like some kind of cybernetic witch’s familiar, I am here for this sort of representational genre mashup.

Disabled Student Turns Wheelchair Into Epic Mad Max Cosplay

Badass completes Most Vicious and Spiritually Accurate cosplay by BUILDING A FUCKING WAR RIG