Posted on 07/29/2005 1:00:30 PM PDT by D521646
Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised - a "female" android called Repliee Q1.
She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner.
She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe.
Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University says one day robots could fool us into believing they are human.
Repliee Q1 is not like any robot you will have seen before, at least outside of science-fiction movies.
She is designed to look human and although she can only sit at present, she has 31 actuators in her upper body, powered by a nearby air compressor, programmed to allow her to move like a human.
"I have developed many robots before," Repliee Q1's designer, Professor Ishiguro, told the BBC News website, "but I soon realised the importance of its appearance. A human-like appearance gives a robot a strong feeling of presence."
Designed to look human
Before Repliee Q1, Professor Ishiguro developed Repliee R1 which had the appearance of a five-year-old Japanese girl.
Its head could move in nine directions and it could gesture with its arm. Four high-sensitivity tactile sensors were placed under the skin of its left arm that made the android react differently to differing pressures.
The follow-up has the appearance of a Japanese woman. To program her motion, a computer analysed the motions of a human and used them as a template for the way Repliee Q1 moves.
She can be designed to follow the movement of a human wearing motion sensors or to act independently.
"Repliee Q1 can interact with people. It can respond to people touching it. It's very satisfying, although we obviously have a long way to go yet."
Professor Ishiguro believes that it may prove possible to build an android that could pass for a human, if only for a brief period.
"An android could get away with it for a short time, 5-10 seconds. However, if we carefully select the situation, we could extend that, to perhaps 10 minutes," he said.
"More importantly, we have found that people forget she is an android while interacting with her. Consciously, it is easy to see that she is an android, but unconsciously, we react to the android as if she were a woman."
I just wanna know why they didn't dress her in a Japanese school uniform? Now that's how you get someones attention! :)
D
Who cares about her upper body?
** HOW MANY OF THESE WILL BILL CLINTON ORDER ??? **
But I bet he will order one that looks like Jennifer Flowers... :-)
Make sure they put in a nag switch.
0 - No Nagging
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5 - Nags Incessantly
They should call her a Jenny, perhaps.
[nobody's going to get that reference. Well, I know one who will]
** HOW MANY OF THESE WILL BILL CLINTON ORDER ??? **
But I bet he will order one that looks like Jennifer Flowers... :-)
Only if it has switches for pumping up the boobs and hair.......and will not bruise easily.
Dude, get a girlfriend.
Does she hoochee koochee?
umm...TMI?
I'm waiting for the todo when some dude wants to marry one...
Couldn't they make her beautiful instead of a plain Jane look?
I have one, but she doesn't like wearing the school outfit anymore? Not sure why really. :)
D
Those aren't androids, those are clones.
Similar to this:
When she wears out you just trade her in on a up to date model.
Bob Grant talking about this now...mentioned that they don't nag..methinks Mr Grant is lurking...
Donald Trump does that already...
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