"The Twilight Zone" may be upon us. A Tokyo museum has unveiled robot guides with uncannily realistic human-like features, skin, speech and movements.
While they can't walk around, Kodomoroid and Otonaroid resemble a girl and a woman, respectively, moving their arms and heads while lip-synching to prerecorded speech about the museum, PCWorld.com reported.
The pair of androids will debut to the public on June 25 at Miraikan museum, or the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, in Tokyo, according to the Associated Press.
Besides giving information about the museum, the robots will reveal how people interact with androids, said Hiroshi Ishiguro, a Japanese robotics expert and Osaka University professor who has been developing robots for more than two decades.
"Making androids is about exploring what it means to be human," he told media this week, as quoted by the AP, "examining the question of what is emotion, what is awareness, what is thinking."
The robots can use a range of voices, including a deep voice or a high squeaky voice, to relay speech that can be inputted through text.
Kodomoroid and Otonaroid mark a huge step forward for robotics since they will be interacting with the public on a regular basis, possibly signaling a world where robots are part of everyday life.
"Until now, you could only see androids in research labs, so having them as permanent museum exhibits is an advance," said Ishiguro, as quoted by PCMag. "Their hands move and their faces have natural expressions."
Androids are becoming more feasible for everyday consumers to purchase. Japanese company Softbank recently presented a robot named Pepper that can mimic human movement and retails for $2,100.
"Robots are now becoming affordable--no different from owning a laptop," said Ishiguro.
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