Kismet was the MIT robot designed to recognize and respond to human emotions in the late 1990s.
Cynthia Breazeal developed Kismet at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory as part of research into social interaction between humans and robots. The robot had a distinctive head with cameras, microphones, ears, eyelids, and movable facial features. Its appearance was intentionally expressive rather than mechanically realistic.
Kismet did not understand emotions as a human does. Instead, software interpreted vocal tone and visual cues, then selected facial expressions, vocal sounds, and movements that modeled social responses. The research examined how a robot could participate in simple affective exchanges and encourage people to communicate with it.
Kismet is sometimes confused with Paro, a later therapeutic robotic seal, or Cog, another MIT humanoid research robot. Kismet’s significance lies in social robotics: the study of machines that interact with people through communication, perception, and behavioral cues.