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Robot Marketer Robert Doornick uses hi-tech wizardry to warm consumers to his Fortune 500 clients

By John Aboud | Issue #22

Should you ever need a spectacle sure to stop trade-show attendees in their tracks, Robert Doornick is your man. As the president of International Robotics, Inc. (IRI), Doornick provides an array of high-priced high-tech marketing solutions to corporate clients. Among the showstoppers advertised on IRI's web site are computer-controlled "dancing" banners, holographic signs, and music-playing water sculptures. But IRI's key product, and Doornick's passion, is a line of interactive robots. Several models resemble gleaming "spacemen" like the kind you'd see roaming alien landscapes on a 1950s lunchbox. Others appear to be close cousins of C-3P0. And Doornick recently created a massive animatronic killer whale for an aquarium in Japan. We spoke to Doornick about his new-fangled pitchmen and the old-fashioned sales techniques that guide their design.
--John Aboud

Stay Free!: What kind of work does Interna-tional Robotics do?

Robert Doornick: Essentially, we study human behavior in the presence of technology. We started thirty years ago by examining how the learning-disabled and people with psychological disorders interact with robots and other technologies. We used these interactive technologies as surrogate communications tools, speaking to these human beings more intimately and directly than actual human beings could. We discovered some unusual phenomena, including certain advantages that led us to create a business we call Techno-Marketing. Techno-Marketing has been very successful because it employs the same psychology we originally employed as a therapeutic tool.

[Most of the images for this article are not online; to get the complete picture, you'll need to order our print magazine.]

Stay Free!: Can you give me an example of how you've used robots therapeutically?

Doornick: We used them with street gangs and socially maladjusted youngsters. These kids tend to be extremely aggressive and expect society to repel them when they act out. It's part of the game: "I'm going to be hostile. You're going to yell at me and try to push me away, and I'm going to kick back." So when a situation like this takes place in the presence of a robot, the robot immediately makes a beeline for that aggressive person and goes, "You are the coolest dude I have ever met in my life! Everybody: this guy is my friend. If anybody messes with him I'll self-destruct in your jockey shorts right now. So, how's it going? Give me some metal, man."

And all of a sudden the robot has these people eating out of the palm of his hand. The robot will say things like, "Don't you hate it when people have no clue what you're trying to say?"

When you talk to an interactive machine, you're not concerned about how you're going to be judged by that machine. So an interesting thing happens: you become much more extroverted. You become much more yourself. The machine happens to be extremely complimentary and massages your ego, which we all love. It's not patronizing the way I would be if I started to massage your ego. In that case you'd be more defensive than accepting.

Stay Free!: Obviously there are parallels here to consumer behavior. Your work aims to reach people who are sick of advertising.

Doornick: Yes. If I approached you as a complete stranger and acted exceedingly friendly, you'd immediately have reservations about my intentions. You'd prepare to defend yourself against a sales pitch. But if an interactive technology approached you, it could cut to the chase and talk to you like you're a family member: "Do you work out, John? You have a nice container." It's such an odd experience that the last thing that comes to your mind is, "Why is that robot speaking to me that way? What did he mean when he said I was handsome and had a nice container?"

Stay Free!: So humor is a big part of how your robots work?

Doornick: Humor is a big part of it because humor takes away the stress that results from the rapid pace of technological change. Human beings are trying to catch up with the very creations that we have put into this world, and that's very stressful for us.

I'll give you a very simple analogy of our psychology. A child walks into the room where you're sitting. You've never seen the child before, and he's never seen you before. He walks up to you, yanks on your sleeve and says, "Excuse me, sir, could you hand me that box of candy?" or whatever it is. And you, being a mature adult, immediately go into a different mode of communication--a less defensive and more receptive mode. Not only are you going to respond to this child without being scared or defensive, but you are actually going to adjust your own behavior to complement that child's and make him or her feel more comfortable in your presence. Well, this is precisely the psychology we employ. We make machines that are perceived by you in the same way you perceive that child.

Stay Free!: How does the robot's design play into this?

Doornick: When two people walk up to each other, the first impact is visual: how we dress, style our hair, carry ourselves. The same thing takes place when you interact with a machine. Our robots have been developing over the past three decades in terms of their physical appearance---a result of many, many trials and errors to achieve the right formula. One of the primary elements is that they have to be adult size. Most of our robots are about six feet tall. That involves a certain intimidation element which is intentionally built into the design. I don't mean threatening, I mean intimidating, because if he's big enough to be one on one with you and look you straight in the face, it'll make you more likely to respect him and stand at attention. A tiny robot is going to look like a child or a toy, so subconsciously you're not going to see this as a machine whose communication you respect.

Stay Free!: Let's talk about a few examples. For example, I heard that former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani used one of your robots at a press conference a few years ago.

Doornick: Yes, the robot was called into the press conference basically to help disarm the media. Before the mayor arrived, the robot essentially warmed up the audience and helped create a less aggressive atmosphere. At the time, the mayor was perceived as having an extramarital relationship. I think he was in the process of getting a divorce. The robot acted in a very jovial manner, and by the time the mayor arrived, the media were all slapping each other on the back and laughing at the robot's shtick. The atmosphere was jovial, friendly, and intimate, so everybody was less inclined to be aggressive or too curious about the mayor's private life.

We've had many, many situations where we've been used by major corporations in similar settings, where members of the audience have a specific agenda for attacking that corporation on issues having to do with economics or pollution--things that are not necessarily beneficial to consumers. The robot is essentially there to say, "I'm glad you asked that question because I was thinking about the same thing. And I looked deep down into the mind-set of these humans who run this corporation, and I was amazed to see how many of those humans are sensitive to those issues and are trying so hard, right now, to work around those issues and solve these problems," and blah blah blah.The robot is making a case for humanity and humanitarianism. Sometimes we treat a corporation like a stereotype. It's like saying, "All Arabs are idiots because of what's going on in Iraq." We package people very quickly and tend to forget that maybe the big corporation that's doing all the wrong things could be doing them because of one or two bad seeds. Sometimes it takes a child to make us listen to that other angle and say, okay, instead of fighting, why don't we try to work together.

Stay Free!: Any other examples?

Doornick: The Reagan administration invited one of my robots to give a performance at the White House. In those days, Ted Kennedy was having a bit of a popularity issue because of Chappaquiddick. [In 1969, Kennedy was driving a car that careened off a bridge, killing his passenger.] So at the end of the presentation, someone got up and said, "Well, thank you very much, robot, for your entertainment. You must be so tired, we're going to ask Mr. Kennedy to give you a ride home." And the robot said, "If you don't mind, I'll take a cab."

Stay Free!: How do the robots work?

Doornick: There's always a human operator. Our business is about communication, not proving that a machine can talk on its own. In fact, a machine cannot do this on its own--yet! And it's of no interest to us to try to fool an audience or utilize a technology that would be extremely limiting for our purpose.

The operator uses an advanced form of telemetry, a miniature microprocessor-controlled guidance system concealed under his clothing. This allows the entertainer to be in the same room as the people without speaking to the robot. You could be having a conversation with the robot, and I could be standing right next to you controlling its movements and its expressions--and you would not even hear my voice. Nor would you see any equipment in my possession. It's a form of electronic ventriloquism.

Stay Free!: So you are also in the long tradition of puppetry.

Doornick: I am very fortunate that circumstances in my life brought me to this very specialized field. My family was a show business family, which taught me the psychology of entertainment and humor. I also had a mother who wanted me to become a shrink.