Robot? Human? Soon We Won't Know the Difference

According to BBC News, Japanese scientists have just revealed the most human-looking robot to date, Repliee Q1Expo.

Repliee a “female” android, is an improvement on the scientists’ previous version, R1 – a five year old girl. Unlike the earlier version, Repliee is made of flexible silicon instead of hard plastic and sensors that allow her to interact with others like a human.

She can flutter her eyelids, move her hands, and breathe like a real person. Scientists believe the day is coming when robots will fool us into believing they are actually human. They have found that people forget she is a robot. “Consciously, it is easy to see that she is an android, but unconsciously, we react to the android as if she were a woman” he told BBC.

“I have developed many robots before,” Repliee Q1Expo’s designer, Professor Ishiguro, told the BBC News website, “but I soon realised the importance of its appearance. A human-like appearance gives a robot a strong feeling of presence.”

Source: BBCnews