A Robot with Pigtails? What Next, Japan?

The creepiest — or most exciting — affair you will see on YouTube today is this newfangled video of the Repliee R-1 , an humanoid that just depart for its first spin at the 2008 CEATEC exposition in Japan . Based on an actual five - class - old girl , this automaton can speak , wave , take the air , pick things up , and even sense when other objects touch its peel . And I ’m having fuss not refer to it as “ she , ” which should tell you how eery the resemblance is between the Repliee R-1 and a physical human missy . The Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University , led by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro , has been working on lifelike golem , called “ actroids , ” for several twelvemonth ; their first epitome went public in November 2003 . The childlike Repliee R-1 has 50 sensor inside its consistency , and its silicon skin was formed from a molding of a human girl . I wonder what that girl recall of her actroid similitude :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P-Jl6Hb5Vw

The Repliee R-1 ’s word are barely perceivable , but I thought I catch it saying “ itai ” — Nipponese for “ smart . ” So much for avoiding the disturbing moral implications of super - naturalistic mechanical man . It ’s also a ignominy that the editors of this video could n’t spell “ sensors ” properly — I do n’t mean putting this robot in a room with 50 señors is necessarily a good estimation . Repliee Robot Makes Me Scream and Cry Like a Little Girl[Gizmodo]Intelligent Robotics Laboratory[Osaka University ] Image fromDVICE .