A Dramatic Step Forward in Robotics

A tiny robot glides up a dancer’s arm and travels across her torso, connecting an ancient art form to the technology of the future. Instead of passively watching, the audience for the piece—through their smartphones—helps control the movements of the glowing device.

“We wanted to use that as a bit of a proxy between us as individuals, and the digital collective on social media,” said Jonathan David Martin, a lecturer in the University of Maryland’s Immersive Media Design major and one of the members of the multidisciplinary team behind DANCExDANCE. The research collaboration was initially funded by a grant from Arts for All, a UMD initiative combining the arts with the sciences and technology to develop new and reimagined curricular and experiential offerings that spark dialogue, understanding, problem solving and action.

In the newest installment of “Enterprise: University of Maryland Research Stories,” researchers from the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, the Department of Computer Science and the College of Information Studies delve into our changing relationship with smart technology.

Story by Maryland Today. View the article and video HERE