ISS Getting Another Electronic Empath
RandomFactor writes:
CIMON 2 (Crew Interactive MObile Companion 2) is a free-floating spherical robot designed to recognize emotions of astronauts, that strongly resembles an oversized Tamagotchi.
"The overall goal is to really create a true companion. The relationship between an astronaut and CIMON is really important," Matthias Biniok, the lead architect for CIMON 2, said.
"It's trying to understand if the astronaut is sad, is he angry, joyful and so on."
CIMON 2 is a successor to CIMON, launched in 2018, however "CIMON 2 will be more sociable with crew members."
In times of conflict or disagreement among astronauts, one of CIMON's most important purposes would be to serve as "an objective outsider that you can talk to if you're alone, or could actually help let the group collaborate again," he said.
The betazoid beach ball was included in SpaceX's 19th resupply mission to the space station which launched on December 5th.
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