DOMO ARIGATO, MISS ROBOTO

Japanese professors have finished the most human-looking robot every built, a female android with a name only a complete robotics nerd could enjoy, Repliee Q1Expo. Repliee has flexible silicon skin, can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human, and has dozens of sensors and motors in her upper body powered by an air compressor which allow her to move and react in a human-like manner. Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, creator of the android, claims that people forget that Repliee is an android when they are interacting with her. “A human-like appearance gives a robot a strong feeling of presence,” said Ishiguro, “consciously, it is easy to see that she is an android, but unconsciously, we react to the android as if she were a woman.” The team of scientists hope to continue to improve their androids until they are able to fool people into believing they are human. “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. (BBC)