Slashdot Mirror
Android Copy of Danish Man Unveiled
An anonymous reader writes "The Geminoid family, a series of ultra-realistic androids, each a copy of a real person, has a new member: Geminoid DK, a robot clone of a Danish researcher and the most realistic Geminoid yet. The robot has lifelike facial features and movements, blinking, smiling, frowning with incredible realism. The Danish researcher, Henrik Scharfe of Aalborg University, teamed up with Japanese animatronics firm Kokoro and roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro to create his robot twin, which he plans to use to study human-robot interaction and cultural differences in the perception of robots. This is the first Geminoid that is not based on a Japanese person; it's also the first bearded one."
I was at first shocked at how realistic this was, but then I realized that I probably was thinking that because they didn't model as a young Japanese woman with perfect skin. Seriously, there are so many robot heads modelled that way, real young Japanese women are almost starting to seem robotic.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Android Copy of Danish Man Unveiled
OK, who else thought "Danish Man" was the name of game that's being ported to Android?
am I the only one who thought it was more news about google's smarphone/tablet platform? :)
androids are cool... but definitely fooled me for half a second
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
Just an FYI folks: "Geminoid" is a registered trademark of Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
The shark still looks fake.
That's no android.
A bit realistic perhaps, but definitely not ultra. I've bothered to actually watch the fine video, and the movements are still on the near side of the creepy valley. As for its classification as an android, really, it's not even a talking head, just little more than an animated wax dummy, able to blink and sigh but incapable of a decent conversation. The main use I see for this is in big budget Hollywood movies where you have to blow up your star actor. But CG can service that department fairly well already.
Ah yes. Japanese and Danes. The most expressive people on planet earth.
When they make an Italian, wake me up.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
This robot is really just an animatronic device, like they have at Disneyland (or so I hear). It's controlled by someone behind the scenes using a computer. The purpose is to study how people interact with it, knowing that it's not real. The interesting thing about regular robots is that they're supposed to control themselves, and research concentrates not just on designing new kinds of sensors and actuators (limbs) and body plans, but especially the software to control them.
Still, it looks very impressive, but I'm not sure how this progresses the development of sensors, actuators, or control software. It seems more like a sophisticated crafts project to me. Are the researchers also going to have test subjects interact with a non-realistic human-shaped robot to see how they react to it, to compare with the realistic looking one?
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
The pictures and video are pretty interesting, but also awfully short. It would be neat to see some combined expressions rather than just simple blinking and mouth movement. Speaking of the movement in the video, was anyone else reminded of Not Quite Human? Haven't thought about that movie in quite a while :)
Also, can anyone say "uncanny valley"? They've definitely made progress, but there's still something... not quite right about it. Considering that the easiest part of creating an android is probably the static external features such as skin, hair, and eyes (lots of practice from movie/TV makeup), it's interesting that a still photo still triggers the cues which tell us "that's not real."
Now only a few things left to do:
1. Create an evil twin bent death, carnage, and annihilation
3. ???
4. Profit! (well, that, or doom the human race)
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
from TFA, I wish he cloned her wife instead...
A robot doesn't have to perfectly mimic a human to be commercially viable, just be close enough to be convincing in the dark.
They basically managed to make a so-so statue of someone that can move its eyes and mouth awkwardly? Unless this thing can walk around and crack-wise I'd be way more impressed by, say, a working Johnny 5.
It would just be masturbation, which is perfectly natural.
1. Evil twin. Been done. (OK, by someone else, not the person being "twinned").
Did nobody else think of the "Evil Robot Us-es"?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
It's probably a government agent trying to subvert the cause, but failing because nobody can tell what the cause is from their inane postings.
Supporter of the +1 Over Dramatic mod option. In memory of apk.
What has been imagined, cannot be imagined :0
So the researchers are catching up with what Hollywood has been doing for years.
Hollywood has not been building automated puppets for years. Go pick up a book called The Stan Winston Effect and see for yourself. If you're feeling especially interested in reseaching this, go look up what it takes to become a 'puppeteer'.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
i imagine bigger movements would be easier to model, not harder.
that's why there's more good theatre actors than film actors. when you're right up close, the slightest movement can give it away.
HAHAHAHA!! Oh sorry :)
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
Bah! Only when they make a copy of the most perfect being Alyson Hannigan will their skills be proven!
BTW Japanese and Danish researchers, when you have proven your skills to replicate perfection.....I'd like a Season Two Willow with the "Vamp Willow" outfit? And I'll pay extra if you can program it to wake me with the "What's my name bitch?" routine, just the way to get a body going, along with having it have steaks ready when I get home. Thanks and let me know what you need for a deposit.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
He's no R. Daneel Olivaw, but he certainly might /look/ like him.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
It looks like the father of the vault-dweller :S
"You'd just have to programme it to say What? and I don't understand and Where's the tea? Who'd know the difference?"
That's what came to mind when I saw the Geminoid's expressions.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
My question is - does Google control the kill switch?
#DeleteChrome
Uncanny Valley.
Except I can tell the movements are fake. However, The realism in the expressions once frozen is quite believable. They need to get some better PWM for controlling the eyelid movement and smoothing it out.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords.
-- I am the Monkey Guru.
You laugh now, but some are seriously looking at where robotics might go.
Perhaps those talented Cal Poly students will soon be giving life to more than New Years' day parade floats?
http://www.calpolynews.calpoly.edu/news_releases/2011/February/robots.html
Kinda gives a new angle to the notion of robotic overlords....
Some fear robots becoming self-aware, but them being used against us by other humans might come first.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf0jlzVCyOI
I wonder, if they made one of Christopher Walken, could you tell the difference?
http://boingboing.net/2009/10/06/funktionide-hints-at.html
"Designer Stefan Ulrich has come up with what could be an early prototype of a real body pillow girlfriend. He calls it Funktionide, an "emotional robot" that changes form depending on how you hold it. Combined with advanced robotics, this could yield something that is soft, cuddly, humanoid, and capable of intelligent conversation. Yes, and it breathes"
http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/images/i-robot05.jpg
I think Brent Spiner should be Geminoided next. Can you imagine the convention possibilities? Trekkies everywhere will be wetting their pants.
About 2 seconds into the vid clips you can tell it's a creepy robot. I suppose some of the stills might fool you at first glance.
Unfortunately, the CIA is ahead of these researchers, having fielded the Osama Bin Laden robotic duplicate years ago. To see how realistic it is, watch any purported Al Qaeda videotape.
And does it shoot lasers from its eyes?
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
This is what Slashdot gets for posting stories with a link to a troll how-to in the summary.
They should have gone with Swedish woman android. I mean, surely they must have _some_ idea about what the technology is _actually_ going to be used for?
They'll make an italian-bot when they need something to surrender to the viking-bots and samurai-bots.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Whenever I read about androids I think about this: http://video.adultswim.com/robot-chicken/robotic-longevity.html
"Ones and zeros were everywhere. I even think I saw a two!" - Bender
Or to invent the renaissance.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
need to have alcohol to get into the mood for yourself?
you must be what they call a "happy hour 10", which is a "5" as seen under the influence.
They made robots even creepier! Now we can cringe at their dead, soulless eyes AND their creepy 'Mom's new boyfriend' beard!
"What this country needs now is a drink." -FDR
I read the title, I clicked the link, I fully expected it to be about some weird dude in Denmark, doing some strange AI-research-related thing in an Android app. After reading the first sentence of the summary, I thought maybe it was someone running Android on their new robot? It took me *way* too long to remember that, in fact, the word "android" predates Google by rather a lot (it didn't help that the word in the title, as required, got capitalized). Great example of linguistic backtracking, though.
You know that was the tribe. Not the Ayetyes.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."