Advanced robotic prosthetics are breaking down the difference between human and machine, while consumer products equipped with cameras, sensors, and software seek to observe and learn from our behavior. As smart phones, thermostats, and robotic vacuum cleaners become more autonomous and lifelike, people develop emotional relationships with them.

Join Cooper Hewitt curator Ellen Lupton as she speaks with the field’s top thinkers Carla Diana (Smart Design), Ayanna Howard (Georgia Institute of Technology), and Matthew Johannes (Johns Hopkins University) about how robots are changing the face of design and engineering.

Beautiful Users is made possible by major support from Amita and Purnendu Chatterjee and Adobe Foundation
Generous support is also provided by Dorit and Avi Reichental.
Additional funding is provided by the August Heckscher Exhibition Fund, the Ehrenkranz Fund, the Bill Moggridge Memorial Fund, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Deborah Buck, May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., and IDEO.

Image: Neato robotic vacuum prototype, Smart Design
Modular Prosthetic Limb, designed by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. Illustration by Bryan Christie