Researchers from Japan’s Osaka University missed the best opportunity to creep everyone out this Halloween, instead of showing off their project just now.
Meet Affetto, a child android head that’s just been updated to show a greater range of emotion. You can see him cycling from happiness to confusion, sleepiness, and curiosity but trust us: the only emotion you’ll probably feel is a deep sense of disturbance.
Affetto the android manages to go beyond the Uncanny Valley effect that most robots have on humans and becomes simply creepy. As one of the researchers stated, “surface deformations are a key issue in controlling android faces,” something which explains Affetto’s … affectations.
“Movements of their soft facial skin create instability, and this is a big hardware problem we grapple with. We sought a better way to measure and control it,” added Mr. Asada. To do this, the scientists investigated 116 different facial points on Affetto, which were then underpinned by “deformation units” responsible for creating the eerie expressions.
“Our precise findings will let us effectively control android facial movements to introduce more nuanced expressions, such as smiling and frowning,” said Hisashi Ishihara, the author of the study.
He basically has the same problem as Ibuki, another child-robot coming from Japan.
If you need some eye bleach, the Nybble robotic kitten might be purrfect.
Also read: ✍Could You Turn Off a Robot That’s Begging You Not To? Science Answers✍
Follow TechTheLead on Google News to get the news first.
