The latest robots are virtually indistinguishable from people

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Almost five years ago now I wrote a post titled Being in two places at the same time which described how Professor Ishiguro, a Japanese roboticist, had created a robot replica of himself so he could give lectures at his university without enduring the commute from his home.

The robot, named Geminoid HI-1 to emphasize that it was his twin, mimicked his expressions and movements. Having this doppelganger meant that he could send it (or indeed multiple versions) out to represent him in the world.

After a sequence of other Geminoids, the state of the art has become startlingly good. The following videos show Geminoid DK, which is the twin of Associate Professor Henrik Scharfe of Denmark’s Aalborg University, designed in collaboration with Professor Ishiguro. Check out the videos.



When we look back at some of the earlier Geminoid robots (see videos at the bottom), it is amazing how far the technology has progressed. Over a period of five years that shouldn’t be too surprising. However robot faces are now becoming close to indistinguishable from a human face (though the rest of the body will be a lot harder).

When we think about advances in Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) over the last 5-10 years it is a little less surprising. Moving swiftly on from the creepiness of the 2004 movie Polar Express, the characters in Avatar in 2010 captured many hearts and minds. Part of what has enabled that is the very deep study that has been made of the intricacies of facial expression. The fact that we know so much about how faces communicate and show emotion is owed to the budgets that Hollywood can afford.

Emulating those faces mechanically is harder than on the screen, but what is possible today is becoming very close to the real thing. It is quite realistic to think that in the next few years robot faces will be able to fool people into thinking they are human, if the voices are human-controlled. However human-equivalent robot speech and conversation too are not too far away.

While these are all one-off prototypes, these robots show that androids as they have been portrayed in science fiction are on the verge of being realized. Wild stuff.

Geminoid HI-1

Geminoid F