World’s first robotic broadcasters are so lifelike they can read reports without stumbling

10 years ago | Posted in: Technology | 501 Views

In a dystopian future, the rise of our robot overlords may be far stealthier than you might expect. Far from being Terminator-like machines, these robots could look so human that, someday, we may not be able to tell man apart from machine.

That day may still be in the distant future, but a new set of ultra-realistic robot newsreaders at a Tokyo museum reveals just how far research has developed in this area.

Named Kodomoroid and Otonaroid, the creepy-looking robots speak so smoothly they are eerily lifelike. Japanese robotics expert Hiroshi Ishiguro, an Osaka University professor, said they will be useful for research on how people interact with robots. ‘Making androids is about exploring what it means to be human,’ he told reporters Tuesday, ‘examining the question of what is emotion, what is awareness, what is thinking.’ In a demonstration, the remote-controlled machines moved their lips in time to a voice-over, twitched their eyebrows, blinked and swayed their heads from side-to-side.

Powered by compressed air and servomotors, they were seated but could move their hands. Kodomoroid read the news without stumbling once and recited complex tongue-twisters glibly. The robots, designed with a girlish appearance, can use a variety of voices, such as a deep male voice one minute, and a squeaky girly voice the next. The speech can be input by text, giving them perfect articulation, according to Professor Ishiguro… see more

source: Dailymail UK

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