Cyborgs Like Us

It appears we’re one more step closer to the long-held human dream–or nightmare–depending on your take, to more human-like robots, with the announcement by an Italian team of scientists at the University of Pisa who are developing the Facial Automation for Conveying Emotions, or FACE, project. Pictured below, the android is the latest prototype that the FACE team has developed. The project is an attempt to simulate human emotions in robots, and in this case, the robot face uses over 3o tiny motors and control software to mimic various types of human expressions, from fear and anger to surprise and disgust.

Watch a demonstration of the FACE android in action:

I’d also recommend this fascinating article on the researchers website about the Uncanny Valley, which is the point where robots look enough like us to be human, but just robotic enough to make us unsettled–hence the phrase “uncanny”. A really fascinating article (direct link here). In this IEEE Symposium piece, the Uncanny Valley coiner Mashairo Mori talks about the implications of this for the future. Mori wrote that:

“One might say that the prosthetic hand has achieved a degree of resemblance to the human form, perhaps on a par with false teeth. However, when we realize the hand, which at first site looked real, is in fact artificial, we experience an eerie sensation. For example, we could be startled during a handshake by its limp boneless grip together with its texture and coldness. When this happens, we lose our sense of affinity, and the hand becomes uncanny.

I don’t think that, on close inspection, a bunraku puppet [pictured at left] appears very similar to a human being. Its realism in terms of size, skin texture, and so on, does not even reach that of a realistic prosthetic hand. But when we enjoy a puppet show in the theater, we are seated at a certain distance from the stage. The puppet’s absolute size is ignored, and its total appearance, including hand and eye movements, is close to that of a human being. So, given our tendency as an audience to become absorbed in this form of art, we might feel a high level of affinity for the puppet.”

Until next time…is it human or is it posthuman?

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