Jump to content

Draft:Furhat Robotics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Viljowf (talk | contribs) at 15:06, 31 March 2025 (→History). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
  • Comment: I am going to reject this for now due to the promotional issue and COI concerns. The article's references appear to have several issues and will need a major reworking. I did not check all of them carefully, but from the references I did take a look at, they raised the following concerns: 1. The University of Manchester source does not appear to mention Furhat. 2. Bloomberg is a reliable soruce, but the Bloomberg source given returns a 404. 3. Similarly, WSJ is generally reliable, however, the WSG source provided returns a 404. 4. New York Post is not generally considered reliable, except on topics of entertainment, per WP:Perennial Sources. 5. There are other 404 errors, such as this URL, and probably others. 6. The PRISCA lab source again, does not mention Furhat. 7. The article relies on several references to academic articles published by Al Moubayed, my assumption is that these are notable, but they should be used in a restricted fashion and with care, and I think that the same paper source is listed in the references several times. 8. This BBC article, once again, returns a 404. Caleb Stanford (talk) 01:38, 29 March 2025 (UTC)
  • @user:Caleb Stanford All of the above issues have been addressed. On point 4. - the NY Post article does not reference any substantive facts, but I've included it to give a sense of the presence of Furhat in popular culture. Please advise User:viljowf (talk)
Furhat Robotics
Company typePrivate
IndustryRobotics, Artificial Intelligence
Founded2014
FounderSamer Al Moubayed
ProductsFurhat robot, FurhatAI, Tengai
Websitefurhatrobotics.com

Furhat Robotics is a Swedish technology company specializing in social robotics and conversational artificial intelligence (AI).[1] The company develops the Furhat robot, a back-projected humanoid head designed for face-to-face interaction. Originally a research spin-off from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Furhat Robotics focuses on supporting academic research at universities in fields such as cognitive science, psychology, human-computer interaction, and embodied AI. Its technology has also been used in applied contexts including customer service, education, healthcare, and recruitment.

History

Furhat Robotics was founded in 2014 by a team of researchers led by Samer Al Moubayed. The company originated from KTH's Computer Science and Communication department, where early research focused on multimodal dialogue systems, expressive speech synthesis, and animated facial projection.[2]

The initial Furhat prototype was developed to study human-computer interaction through a combination of linguistics, animation, and robotics, aiming to bridge the emotional gap between users and machines.[3][2] Early demonstrations of the robot—such as at ICRA 2016 and the 2019 Bucharest Tech Week—presented features such as gaze direction, synchronized lip movement, and animated facial expressions intended to simulate social presence.[4][5]

In 2017, Furhat Robotics received $2.5 million in seed funding from investors including Disney.[6] In 2019, the company collaborated with the Swedish recruitment firm TNG to develop Tengai, a robot intended to support more structured and consistent interview processes.[7][8] In January 2022, Furhat Robotics acquired Misty Robotics, a U.S.-based social robotics company. The acquisition extended Furhat's reach into education and healthcare domains, particularly in the U.S.[9][10]

As of 2024, the company reports deployments in Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and the Middle East.[11][12] In the UAE, Furhat Robotics has collaborated with local partners to explore socially intelligent robots for public and educational use, aligning with the country's broader AI and innovation initiatives.[13] In a 2024 profile, The Catalyst Online described the company's vision of creating lifelong robotic companions for humans.[14]

Products

Furhat robot

The Furhat robot is a humanoid bust that features a back-projected face capable of displaying a range of virtual characters. It supports conversational interaction through voice, facial expressions, eye contact, and head movement.[15][8]

Tengai

Tengai was developed by Furhat Robotics in collaboration with the Swedish recruitment company TNG as a tool for structured, unbiased job interviews. Built on the Furhat platform, Tengai uses the same hardware and facial animation system, but features a distinct personality and dialogue model tailored for recruitment.[7]

In 2020, the project was spun out into a separate company, Tengai AB, which continues to license Furhat's technology. Tengai has been widely covered as a potential solution to bias in hiring, though some experts question the feasibility of fully impartial AI systems.[7][1]

Technologies

Furhat Robotics has developed a suite of proprietary technologies to support lifelike, face-to-face interaction between humans and machines:

Back-projected facial display system

Furhat's uses an internal projection system, which casts animated facial expressions onto a translucent three-dimensional mask. This allows for lip-sync, animated emotion, and the ability to switch virtual personas instantaneously — a feature that distinguishes it from mechanically actuated robots.[16][17]

Gaze and social presence modeling

Furhat Robotics developed its own algorithms for modeling gaze direction, turn-taking, and user attention.[18] These are used to simulate social presence in multi-user interactions and have been researched in the context of human-robot dialogue and embodied AI.[19]

FurhatAI

FurhatAI is the company's visual, no-code development platform for building conversational characters. It enables users to create dialogue flows, define facial expressions, control gaze and body language, and integrate speech capabilities. The platform is designed to run on both physical Furhat robots and virtual simulators.[20]

In addition to its proprietary tools, the platform supports integration with widely used third-party technologies, including text-to-speech (TTS) engines, automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, voice cloning, and large language models such as OpenAI's GPT-3.5.[21][22][20][12] Microsoft has also featured Furhat in demonstrations of its Copilot framework, illustrating human-robot interaction through generative AI.[20][12]

Research and university collaborations

According to the company, Furhat Robotics develops its platform to support researchers, educators, and students in exploring new use cases in human-machine interaction.[11][23]

The robot has been used in research at KTH Royal Institute of Technology for multimodal dialogue systems,[11] TU Graz for natural language interaction,[22] and the University of Twente for studying bias in social robotics.[24] At the University of Manchester's Cognitive Robotics Lab (COROLAB), the Furhat robot is used to study trust, theory of mind, and language development in human-robot interaction. It is also deployed in the lab's simulated home environment to study how robots can engage with people in everyday social settings.[25] Heriot-Watt University and the UK's National Robotarium have investigated socially assistive AI in public settings.[26]Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).</ref>

Uppsala University has studied how Furhat may challenge gender norms in interaction design,[27] and the University of Naples' PRISCA lab has incorporated the platform into projects on emotional and multimodal interaction.[28]

The robot has also been used in academic work at institutions such as Örebro University, Karolinska Institutet, and the University of Waterloo.[29][23][30]

Commercial applications

The Furhat robot has been applied in various sectors, including customer service, healthcare, education, and recruitment. In transport and hospitality contexts, it has functioned as a multilingual concierge and information assistant in airports and train stations, providing support in over 35 languages.[31][32][12]

In healthcare, Furhat has been used in conversational pre-screening for conditions such as diabetes, alcoholism, and hypothyroidism through the PETRA project.[33] It has also been tested in trials related to autism therapy[34] and mental health assessment.[35]

The platform has also been used in educational settings for language learning and social interaction,[36] and in training environments to simulate customer service interactions involving emotional cues.[37]

In recruitment, the robot has supported standardized interview processes aimed at mitigating bias, including the development of a specialized interface for job interviews.[7][38]

Public reception

Furhat's use of facial projection and conversational AI has been noted for enabling emotionally expressive, naturalistic interaction.[2][8][39][40]

However, some commentators and journalists have noted that hyperrealistic features—such as simulated empathy and personalized dialogue—may raise ethical concerns, particularly in emotionally sensitive contexts like hiring and healthcare.[7][39]

Some studies have linked these reactions to the 'uncanny valley' effect.[41] These discussions align with wider debates in AI ethics around transparency, overtrust, and anthropomorphism in social robots.[42]

Media coverage

Furhat's role in hiring, particularly through the Tengai robot, has been covered by the BBC,[7] Reuters,[8] the World Economic Forum,[38][43] CNN,[44] and Forbes.[45]

The Furhat robot was profiled in The New York Post,[46] interviewed on The Millennial Way Show,[47] and mentioned in an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that explored the ethical and social implications of AI.[48]

The company was also discussed in a Wall Street Journal podcast on social robotics[49] and profiled by Bloomberg following its acquisition of Misty Robotics.[50]

References

  1. ^ a b Hern, Alex. Ghost in the machine: the robot that can understand emotion. The Guardian, 16 April 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2018/apr/16/ghost-in-the-machine-the-robot-that-can-understand-emotion
  2. ^ a b c Al Moubayed, S., Skantze, G., Gustafson, J., Beskow, J., & Granström, B. (2013). Furhat: A Back-Projected Human-Like Robot Head for Multiparty Human-Machine Interaction. In *Cognitive Behavioural Systems* (pp. 114–130). Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-34584-5_9
  3. ^ Skantze, Gabriel; Al Moubayed, Samer; Gustafson, Joakim; Beskow, Jonas; Granström, Björn. "Furhat at Robotville: A Robot Head Harvesting the Thoughts of the Public through Multi-party Dialogue". ResearchGate. KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2025-03-31.
  4. ^ Robohub. '#ICRA2016 photo essay.' https://robohub.org/icra2016-photo-essay
  5. ^ "About Us". Bucharest Tech Week. Retrieved 2025-03-31.
  6. ^ Newscenter.io. 'Disney Bets on Furhat.' https://newscenter.io/2017/09/exclusive-social-robotics-company-furhat-closes-2-5m/
  7. ^ a b c d e f BBC. 'Meet Tengai, the job interview robot.' https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47442953
  8. ^ a b c d Reuters. 'Furhat, a robot with the human touch, wants to hear your woes.' https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tech-robotics-idUSKCN1NX0U2
  9. ^ TechCrunch. 'Post-acquisition, Misty Robotics pivots to education.' https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/31/post-acquisition-misty-robotics-pivots-to-education/
  10. ^ Bloomberg. 'Furhat Acquires Misty Robotics.' https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-16/furhat-acquires-misty
  11. ^ a b c Furhat Robotics. https://www.furhatrobotics.com
  12. ^ a b c d Fast Company Middle East. "Advanced robots are coming to the UAE — and these innovative companies are building them." https://fastcompanyme.com/technology/advanced-robots-are-coming-to-the-uae-and-these-innovative-companies-are-building-them/
  13. ^ "Naseej announces game-changing partnership with Furhat Robotics". Zawya. 14 March 2023. Retrieved 28 March 2025.
  14. ^ "Furhat Robotics envisions technology as a lifelong human companion". The Catalyst. 25 February 2025. Retrieved 28 March 2025.
  15. ^ Rigg, Jamie (2018). "Furhat is a social robot for every situation – but could we ever really accept it?". Engadget. Retrieved 2025-03-31.
  16. ^ "Furhat Robotics puts a new face on AI interactions". New Atlas. November 6, 2018. Retrieved March 29, 2025.
  17. ^ "Start-up of the day: making social robots a reality". Innovation Origins. October 30, 2018. Retrieved March 29, 2025.
  18. ^ "Users and Attention - Furhat Developer Docs". Furhat Robotics. Retrieved March 29, 2025.
  19. ^ Giulio Antonio Abbo, Maria Jose Pinto-Bernal, Martijn Catrycke, Tony Belpaeme (January 15, 2025). Fast Multi-Party Open-Ended Conversation with a Social Robot. arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.15496. arXiv:2503.15496.{{cite conference}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ a b c Qualgro. Furhat Robotics Debuts FurhatAI. https://qualgro.com/furhat-robotics-debuts-furhatai/
  21. ^ Freethink. 'Robot receptionist is like ChatGPT.' https://www.freethink.com/robots/furhat-robot-receptionist
  22. ^ a b TU Graz. 'Human Conversations with a Robotic Head.' https://www.tugraz.at/robo-head-research
  23. ^ a b The Innovator. Startup of the Week: Furhat Robotics. https://theinnovator.news/startup-of-the-week-furhat-robotics/
  24. ^ "Furhat". University of Twente BMS Lab. Retrieved 2025-03-27.
  25. ^ "Cognitive Robotics Lab (COROLAB)". University of Manchester. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  26. ^ "Researchers create generative AI robot assistant". Inquirer Technology. September 18, 2023. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  27. ^ Uppsala University. Social robots can help break gender norms. (14 May 2024). https://www.uu.se/en/news/2024/2024-05-14-social-robots-can-help-breaking-norms
  28. ^ "Proactive Robot Behaviour". GitHub. PRISCA Lab. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  29. ^ Borg, Alexander; Georg, Carina; Jobs, Benjamin; Huss, Viking; Waldenlind, Kristin; Ruiz, Mini; Edelbring, Samuel; Skantze, Gabriel; Parodis, Ioannis (2025-03-03). Kelly Jean Craig (ed.). "Virtual Patient Simulations Using Social Robotics Combined With Large Language Models for Clinical Reasoning Training in Medical Education: Mixed Methods Study". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 27: e63312. doi:10.2196/63312. PMC 11914843. PMID 40053778.
  30. ^ "Meet Our Robots". Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Lab – University of Waterloo. University of Waterloo. Retrieved 27 March 2025.
  31. ^ "Day 3 – 11-07-2022: The First Company Visits". ICE. University of Twente. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  32. ^ Schenker, Jennifer L. (November 17, 2023). "Startup Of The Week: Furhat Robotics". The Innovator. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  33. ^ "PETRA: The potencial of medical robots". AseBio. 2021-07-20. Retrieved 2025-03-31.
  34. ^ Aida Amir, Nurziya Oralbayeva, Nurbanu Zhenissova, Zhansaule Telisheva, Aida Zhanatkyzy, Ilyas Issa, Alina Kontorbayeva, Sultan Kuat, Aizhan Yermek, and Anara Sandygulova. "Robot-assisted Social Narratives for Children with Diverse Developmental Conditions: A Pilot Study." In: 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), August 26–30, 2024, Pasadena, California, USA. IEEE, 2024. DOI: [10.1109/RO-MAN60168.2024.10731429](https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN60168.2024.10731429)
  35. ^ Moujahid, A., Jukic, D., & Andreasson, R. (2023). "Assessing stress, anxiety and depression with social robots via conversational AI." EnPress. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371644614_Assessing_stress_anxiety_and_depression_with_social_robots_via_conversational_AI
  36. ^ Almutoory, Mohammed; Jiang, Xianta (January 2025). "A Human-Robot Interaction in Education: A Systematic Review of Furhat Robot's Role in Student Learning". Artificial Intelligence & Robotics Development Journal. 5 (1): 337–352. doi:10.52098/airdj.20255136. ISSN 2788-9696.
  37. ^ Mastis, Lindsey (December 11, 2024). "Robot programmed to curse? New AI tool aids in customer service training". WJLA. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  38. ^ a b ref>"This robot interviewer is helping Sweden recruit without bias". World Economic Forum. July 18, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2025.
  39. ^ a b Hern, Alex. Ghost in the machine: the robot that can understand emotion. The Guardian, 16 April 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2018/apr/16/ghost-in-the-machine-the-robot-that-can-understand-emotion
  40. ^ Bonime, Western. The Human Element Is Key At Furhat Robotics. Forbes, 27 January 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/westernbonime/2018/01/27/the-human-element-is-key-at-furhat-robotics
  41. ^ Jarsve, Tora; Malkomsen, Emma R.; Woźniak, Paweł; Niess, Jasmin (October 2024). Exploring User Expectations and Perceived Creepiness in AI: A Study on Furhat and ChatGPT. NordiCHI Adjunct 2024: Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. doi:10.1145/3677045.3685428.
  42. ^ Lugrin, B., Stricker, D., & van Wissen, A. (2024). Ethnical Anthropomorphism in Human-Robot Interaction: Personalized Robot Tutors. Proceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380994262_Ethnical_Anthropomorphism_in_Human-Robot_Interaction_Personalized_Robot_Tutors
  43. ^ "This robot interviewer is helping Sweden recruit without bias". World Economic Forum. July 18, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2025.
  44. ^ CNN. 'Can 5G make robots more human?.' https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2019/11/08/dubai-5g-furhat-robotics.cnn
  45. ^ Forbes. 'Furhat Robotics and the human face of AI.' https://www.forbes.com/sites/westernbonime/2018/01/27/the-human-element-is-key-at-furhat-robotics
  46. ^ New York Post. 'This human-like robot wants you to open up.' https://nypost.com/2018/11/28/this-human-like-robot-wants-you-to-open-up
  47. ^ Interviewing a social robot called Furhat on The Millennial Way Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlQc0Tbzbms
  48. ^ Artificial Intelligence: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqa8Zo2XWc4
  49. ^ Wall Street Journal. 'Social Robots: The New Face of AI.' https://www.wsj.com/video/social-robots-the-new-face-of-ai/1814D4D6-92E2-4ED4-B6D6-5FF7FA141671
  50. ^ "Swedish Maker of 'Furhat' Social Robot Acquires Misty Robotics". Bloomberg. January 17, 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2025.

Furhat Robotics

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:Furhat_Robotics&oldid=1283283758"