engineering

Inkha

Inkha is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Inkha rather than just read about it. In short: Inkha is an interactive robotic head which was created in 2002 at King's College London by Mat Walker and Peter S. Longyear.

Key takeaways

Inkha belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Inkha to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Inkha from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Inkha is an interactive robotic head which was created in 2002 at King's College London by Mat Walker and Peter S. Longyear.

Inkha uses a camera in its eye to track the movement of people who come close to it. It moves in a lifelike way based on studies of human movement. Inkha exhibits fright when it sees sudden movements and interest when it sees small movements. It becomes bored and goes to sleep if there is nothing of interest to "see". Inkha also speaks periodically about facts and astrology and gives out fashion tips. During 2003 Inkha was enhanced to become a Roboreceptionist at the Strand entrance of King's [1]. This saw the addition of additional sensors, industrial-grade servo motors and a touch screen so that Inkha could give room directions to visitors. The Roboreceptionist operated for over ten years, giving out over 74,000 room directions and making over 81,000 comments. In this time Inkha spoke over a million phrases and the buttons on the touch screen were pressed over 140,000 times. Inkha was decommissioned at King's in October 2014. Inkha is part of the Science Museum, London's Robots exhibition [2] appearing in London from February to September 2017 and then touring internationally.

A portable version of Inkha was created and was installed as a Roboreceptionist at the Cheltenham Science Festival each year between 2004 and 2006. Inkha has appeared on the children's television programme Blue Peter and been the subject of articles in the science journal Nature (reprinted here [3]) and The Times [4]. Mat Walker is now working with Dan Warner developing the Ohbot robot for children.

External links Inkha home page

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Inkha

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Inkha claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Inkha before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Inkha ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Inkha

In research: Inkha appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Inkha in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Inkha is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2002 robots, Humanoid robots, King's College London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Inkha outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Inkha in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Inkha means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Inkha out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Inkha in simple terms?

Inkha is an interactive robotic head which was created in 2002 at King's College London by Mat Walker and Peter S. Longyear.

Why does Inkha matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Inkha?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Inkha.