Robots that we can communicate with are no longer the realm of science fiction fantasy - they are our reality, explains Dr Paul Bremner in this TEDx first, with Paul delivering his talk via a humanoid robot avatar called Bob.

Dr Paul Bremner and his team from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory's Being There project, investigating whether the use of robot avatars allow people to have rewarding remote interactions which can foster rapport, trust and engagement with others. Paul’s primary research focus is on human-robot communication using hand gestures along with speech.

To analyse these interactions they are using a range of sensing technologies to detect key social signals such as people's emotional state. 
Their research is leading the thinking on how to evaluate and develop autonomous social robots of the future.

The world-class BRL team is based at the University of the West of England and is a unique collaboration of leading scientists from universities across the UK.