In academics, fine arts, and industry, I strive to innovate and integrate the technical, the artistic, and the primal. In 1996, I graduated from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) wih a BFA in film/video/animation. In 2007 I received my Ph.D. in aesthetic studies from the University of Texas at Dallas, with a focus on the aesthetics of humanlike robots. I am a sculptor, but robotics is my choice medium and I seek to push the boundaries of both the science and the arts of robotics. I have built 14 conversational character robots over the last 5 years, and shown them on the Discovery Channel, BBC, in WIRED magazine, Science, NYTimes, and at science conferences around the world. These robots are distinguished by their interactivity (they see faces, make eye contact, understand speech and hold conversations) and their great facial expressions. The robots make a full range of extremely humanlike expressions made possible by a fusion of artistry with a material I invented and patented, called Frubber. Frubber is a super-elastic foam rubber that wrinkles and creases more like real facial flesh, while requiring very low power to do so. This allows the robots to run on batteries and mount to walking robot bodies, creating the first total androids. I in general I am interested in the strange diversity of forms that mad, fevered, random acts of creation set loose. To see high resolution images of my robots, please look at www.hansonrobotics.com. http://davidhanson.smugmug.com/Art/hanson-art/z-HansonRobotsTED2004/36535484_eGKts-300x300-2.jpg http://davidhanson.smugmug.com/ 2009-01-21T15:08:28Z Copyright 2009, the copyright holder of each photograph. Some portions copyright SmugMug. All rights reserved. SmugMug <p><a href="http://davidhanson.smugmug.com">David Hanson</a><br />Einstein1</p><p><a href="http://davidhanson.smugmug.com/Art/hanson-art/819164_ngqQh#240108809_QgJw9" title="Einstein1"><img src="http://davidhanson.smugmug.com/Art/hanson-art/Einstein3/240108809_QgJw9-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="Einstein1" title="Einstein1" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-21T15:08:28Z David Hanson http://davidhanson.smugmug.com http://davidhanson.smugmug.com/Art/hanson-art/Einstein3/240108809_QgJw9-320.mp4