Tag: robotics

Last year, a video of Ameca the robot’s facial expressions had the world fascinated (and terrified). But the creators of this humanoid say Ameca is the face of the future.

U.K.-based company Engineered Arts has unveiled a remarkably human-like android with a promotional video released on social media of it “waking up.” In the video, the robot known as “Ameca” can be seen expressing what appears to be surprise as it opens its eyes and looks around and examines itself. When it notices the camera person, it then smiles and offers out its hand. The Ameca has grey-coloured skin, with gender and race-neutral characteristics, but is being described as the world’s “most advanced human shaped robot representing the forefront of human-robotics technology.” “The reason for making a robot that looks like a person is to interact with people,” Engineered Arts founder Will Jackson said.

Androids are constantly improving but…well, let’s face it—they’re still pretty bad. There’s just something about them that still isn’t right and that could keep people from forming connections with them.

They often fall into what’s been dubbed the uncanny valley, an idea introduced in the 1970s by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori. He noticed how people seemed repulsed by things that were very close to human, but not quite there.

Because of the informal nature of the concept’s creation, it’s existence is actually a topic of debate among psychologists, with some proposing that there’s no well-defined valley per se, just an uncanny phenomenon that different people may feel to different degrees. Some people may not experience that uncanny sensation at all.

So since the uncanny valley isn’t a hard-and fast rule, it’s not an impassable obstacle when it comes to forming relationships with androids. Really people can form relationships with anything — humans are emotional creatures and we have a tendency to anthropomorphize even inanimate objects all the time.

Boston Dynamics has sparked the imaginations of the general public with its viral YouTube videos, but the company is now hoping to get the attention of paying customers. Initially, Boston Dynamics received a lot of its funding from the U.S. military and DARPA.

Later, it was financed by big-name owners including Google, SoftBank and most recently, Hyundai. All of these companies have tried to steer the robot maker on a path to commercialization, and Boston Dynamics is finally getting there. CNBC got a rare look at Boston Dynamics’ office in Massachusetts, where the team showed off two of the robots they are working to commercialize: Spot and Stretch.

The exhibition was a trade fair of services, where, among other things, you could see the latest developments in robots and artificial intelligence, high-tech and traditional solutions of Chinese medicine and roboauto. New drones, a robotic neurosurgeon, a robot horse, virtual reality inventions – you will see all this and more in this edition of high-tech news.