A teaser video shows the gray-faced robot waking up, distorting its face into a grimace of shock, and then examining its hands in disbelief.
Engineered Arts, “the UK’s leading designer and manufacturer of humanoid robots for entertainment,” recently unveiled Ameca on the Internet.
The video is short but intense, Engineered Arts gives us a glimpse of “Ameca” but it’s only a glimpse. The humanoid robot, which doesn’t have as much fake skin and musculature aside, that of the face and hands, is incredibly realistic. Not only are the robot’s movements exceptionally fluid, but its face also looks totally natural.
he purpose of the robot is to allow us to study human-robot interaction, and credible facial cues make this much easier.
It’s a clever illusion – the sequence was most likely sequenced in advance – but nonetheless a seemingly stunning example of how far robotics has come.The robot ends its charade with a “I got you” nod, as if it’s trying to trick us into thinking it’s actually gaining self-awareness. The company is making the robot available for purchase and rental for events, but has not yet advertised a price.
Ameca’s head, however, is empty, we are not faced with a humanoid with artificial intelligence that interacts with us, but a robot without a brain, which is a robotic experience, but based only on very realistic animations. The Robot doesn’t really interact, Engineered Arts clarifies that Ameca doesn’t use anything like “Pure AI” (a.k.a. Artificial General Intelligence). And as far as conversation goes, Ameca is essentially a chatbot in a metal frame. Although Engineered Arts says users can easily “talk through the robot” remotely.
I mean the impression it makes is scary, for now it’s a half-busted robot, but given the terrible realism it’s better for everyone that it doesn’t walk yet.
