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."
Why do they have her sitting on a toilet?
With the exception of Rachel, they *are* androids. Rachel was a an android clone.. Decker, now....
Soon! Soon you will be obsolete! Bwaahaahaahaa!
How can she be an android clone? They are mutually exclusive. An android is a machine made to look like a human. A genetically enhanced clone is a living being. These guys were living beings, which is why they bled. They were enhanced genetic clones who had a shortened tapper on their DNA that wore out after 5 years of life, which is why they were dieing so quickly. A safety valve.
ping
Maybe it was cloned. Such wonders of the "future"!
Don't bet on it Buster!
Hehe Great Minds Think Alike.
Guys! There's hope for you yet!
>>>"I'll order one if they've perfected the Obedience circuitry"<<<
Put me down for two, "Variety is the Spice of Life"
That's the one!
;^)
Is she programed to have a headache?
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