Robohub.org
 

Revisiting telepresence robots at Robot Film Festival


by
08 July 2014



share this:
hinokio-inter-galactic-love

What happens when you attend school via telepresence robot? This heartwarming Japanese science fiction film is now close to becoming science fact. In spite of winning a swathe of awards in Japan, Hinokio has never been screened in the US and will be premiering at the 4th Annual Robot Film Festival on July 19 at Bot&Dolly in San Francisco. As telepresence robots become affordable and increasingly used in educational settings, Hinokio demonstrates some of the challenges. And benefits of course. Perhaps soon we’ll all be worried about how attractive our robot body is to others.

The Robot Film Festival is an annual celebration of robots on screen and in performance. Now in it’s 4th year, the Robot Film Festival will take place at the studios of Bot & Dolly, creators of the robotic cinematography behind the recent Oscar-winning blockbuster Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. The Robot Film Festival was founded in 2011 by Marek Michalowski and Heather Knight to inject both artistry and playfulness into traditional robotic engineering and to explore the frontiers of the human-machine relationship.

What does identity mean when we become our robots? Whether augmenting ourselves with artificial limbs or attending a new school through the eyes of a robot avatar, this year’s Robot Film Festival — including its headliner, performers, and special guests — will draw our attention to the blurry line between humanity and our machines.

The Robot Film Festival is packed with short films about and by robots, followed by a red carpet award ceremony and a performance from Jazari, a cyborg percussion ensemble. Jazari fuses African rhythms and wooden machines with solenoids and stepper motors controlled by a MIDI interface into futuristic Afro-baroque dance music.

Film submissions are open until July 6. Tickets on sale at http://robotfilmfestival. eventbrite.com. For more information, please email info@robotfilmfestival.com.



tags:


Andra Keay is the Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics, founder of Women in Robotics and is a mentor, investor and advisor to startups, accelerators and think tanks, with a strong interest in commercializing socially positive robotics and AI.
Andra Keay is the Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics, founder of Women in Robotics and is a mentor, investor and advisor to startups, accelerators and think tanks, with a strong interest in commercializing socially positive robotics and AI.





Related posts :



Researchers are teaching robots to walk on Mars from the sand of New Mexico

  02 Sep 2025
Researchers are closer to equipping a dog-like robot to conduct science on the surface of Mars

Engineering fantasy into reality

  26 Aug 2025
PhD student Erik Ballesteros is building “Doc Ock” arms for future astronauts.

RoboCup@Work League: Interview with Christoph Steup

and   22 Aug 2025
Find out more about the RoboCup League focussed on industrial production systems.

Interview with Haimin Hu: Game-theoretic integration of safety, interaction and learning for human-centered autonomy

and   21 Aug 2025
Hear from Haimin in the latest in our series featuring the 2025 AAAI / ACM SIGAI Doctoral Consortium participants.

AIhub coffee corner: Agentic AI

  15 Aug 2025
The AIhub coffee corner captures the musings of AI experts over a short conversation.

Interview with Kate Candon: Leveraging explicit and implicit feedback in human-robot interactions

and   25 Jul 2025
Hear from PhD student Kate about her work on human-robot interactions.

#RoboCup2025: social media round-up part 2

  24 Jul 2025
Find out what participants got up to during the second half of RoboCup2025 in Salvador, Brazil.

#RoboCup2025: social media round-up 1

  21 Jul 2025
Find out what participants got up to during the opening days of RoboCup2025 in Salvador, Brazil.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence