Modern Museum of Art patrons to meet robot/hybrid computer Wizkid

Chances are you probably won’t be surprised to find artwork on display in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but what if you found a hybrid computer and robot there?

Well, that’s exactly what you’ll find in the “person” of Wizkid, the brainchild of engineer Frederic Kaplan and industrial designer Martino dÂ’Esposito. More information on their electronic creation after the jump.

The principle of people adapting to each other and learning from each other makes for some healthy and interesting human interaction. Wizkid seems to do something quite similar, only it isn’t exactly a human being – it’s a hybrid computer and robot in one.

Engineer Frederic Kaplan and industrial designer Martino dÂ’Esposito, it seems, created Wizkid to change the way people interact with computers. Instead of adapting to the Wizkid, the machine adapts to you: it will pay attention to you, ask you (nonverbal) questions, learn from you, and “express emotions” through its unique “body language.”

The good news is that Wizkid is completely hands-off – no mouse and no keyboard. Simply wave your hand to select from a variety of interactive elements on Wizkid’s screen. That’s precisely what Kaplan and d’Esposito designed Wizkid for: user-friendliness.

Wizkid will be part of the Modern Museum of Art’s Design and Elastic Mind exhibit. The exhibit will run from February 24 to May 12, 2008, so if you’re in the New York area and you’d like to interact with Wizkid, feel free to drop by the museum.