Engineered Arts has developed a robot called Ameca, whose face contracts to reveal facial expressions really humanity. The humanoid robot video looks like a deleted scene from the movie I, Robot. But it’s not science fiction, it’s all engineering.
This robot’s face contracts into human facial expressions
Ameca wakes up, opens her eyes wide in a mixture of surprise e frustration. Then he looks at his hands and the amazement that can be read on his face seems completely human. The video made by the developers of Engineered Arts it seems directed by Steven Spielberg (although we are sure that the director would have moved the camera better). From the video images below, it becomes impossible not to think that the robot has emotions and show them with your facial expressions. Even knowing that it is only his programming.
Engineered Arts engineers have built a very believable humanoid robot, with enough mechanical elements that simulate facial muscles to give the illusion of a pure science fiction droid. At the moment, Ameca cannot move on its own legs but the engineering team is working on it. And soon we will be able to see Ameca (or a robot similar to him) walking among us. More likely in a technology conference than in the supermarket, at least at the beginning: in fact it should show itself live at CES in Las Vegas in January 2022.
Realistic bodies and faces, starting with human ones
The robotics company is not thinking about the practical applications of this technology. It is developing ultra realistic bodies, and then leave it to the companies fascinated by this technology to develop an artificial intelligence that can make the most of them. And to do this the company explains that it uses 3D scans of real human faces. In this way he can study the bone structure, the folds and the color of the skin, the expressions that reveal our emotions. And then recreate them with robots.
These prototypes are used by Engineered Arts to show their skills in wowing with their bots. The company, as the name suggests, deals with products for entertainment using technology. So this type of robot can serve to amaze those who attend a fair or a playground (although we are sure that online there are already those who are writing treatises on how these robots will take control of humanity).
But the applications could be manifold. And some of these probably are out of the reach of our imagination. For the moment, however, the main goal of these robots is to cause us who watch the same amazement that they manage to produce by following a complex algorithm.
Ameca is not the only robot capable of almost human facial expressions
A few days after showing Ameca for the first time, Engineered Arts also launched another video to showcase their skills. This time we see only one head, like on the Westworld repair table (or enter your favorite sci-fi reference here). Is called Mesmer and it looks even more realistic than Ameca.
Not only can it reproduce basic expressions. The way he moves his jaw and looks at us with eyes that invite dialogue really creates the illusion that there is a conscience behind the AI. After all, we know by studying the animal kingdom that we naturally recognize human emotions even where we rationally know we cannot find them. The best of engineering collaborates here with the our instinct for empathy, making our minds give life to this robot.
These robots are certainly amazing and make one think that the potential for robotics in the future is truly infiniteor. On the other hand, people like us who have read and watched too many science fiction stories know that these very human faces will make it more difficult to stop a sentient robot revolt to subjugate humanity. When Skynet takes over, we’ll be screwed. But until then, we’ll keep gawking all the facial expressions of these robots.