((PKG)) PEPPER THE ROBOT
((Banner: Pepper The Robot))
((Reporter: Carolyn Presutti))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((NATS))
Pepper: Ready? One, two, three!
Rachel Goslins: Who are you?
Pepper: My name is Pepper. Welcome to the National Museum of African Art! What would you like?
((CHASE IOTT, MUSEUM VISITOR))
She's not a real person. She's just like technology. She's like your iPhone but more advanced.
((NATS))
Pepper: Do you see that big round window behind me? It's called the rose window.
((RACHEL GOSLINS, SMITHSONIAN, "MOTHER OF ROBOTS"))
Pepper's really good at customizing information. She allows people to go deeper on a particular artifact, or learn something about the background, or the conservation of one of our works of art. So, people can get customized information by asking her questions, or watching a video, or seeing images.
((NATS))
((MICHELLE EDWARDS, SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART))
I always think of an exhibition as a real estate space, where you have all the objects, and if there are videos loaded, but there’s only so many places. You can’t put everything you can in an exhibit. So, having a robot there to kind of give you that extra layer of meaning and understanding provides a little bit more context for the exhibition.
((NATS))
Pepper: Check these out! What would you like to try?
((RACHEL GOSLINS, SMITHSONIAN, "MOTHER OF ROBOTS"))
She’s not like Alexa or Siri. So, it’s pre-programmed interactions, but we’ve found that people are really engaged and often ask all of the questions that they can think of to get more information about the things you’re trying to teach them about.
((NATS))
Pepper: Hi. You’re an excellent conductor.
((RACHEL GOSLINS, SMITHSONIAN, "MOTHER OF ROBOTS"))
Programming is really easy. I’m not a tech person. Our educators and docents aren’t tech people, but there’s a software interface that’s super easy. It’s kind of like PowerPoint, so you can insert text and images. You can create an information campaign in 15 or 20 minutes, which allows us to experiment and customize Pepper, and what the robot is saying and how they’re saying it, really easily.
((NATS))
((MICHELLE EDWARDS, SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART))
We all are trying to figure out, how do we make our Pepper unique? And I wanted to have our Pepper to have kind of a distinct African voice and identity. And so, one way to do that was not to just talk about the art, but talk about language, because that’s such an important thing in the exhibit and African art, and that kind of made us a little bit unique to other exhibitions.
((NATS))
Pepper: Look here are some Swahili words on my screen.
((RACHEL GOSLINS, SMITHSONIAN, "MOTHER OF ROBOTS"))
The thing about any technology in museums is they’re only as good as the problems they solve, you know. If you’re just bringing technology into museums because it’s a new gadget, it’s ultimately a gimmick and it outlives its usefulness pretty quickly.
VOA Connect
