The Future of Andriods

Woohoo! It's the weekend again. The first weekend since school started and I'm really thankful it has arrived. Although my first week at school wasn't actually busy, I think I found it quite depressing cos I just couldn't get myself into the study mood (help!). Also, I'm still deciding whether I should take a certain module on Artificial Intelligence. It's interesting to me, but the exam is open book, which sounds scary to me. Oh well, I guess I'll think about it over the weekend.

Today's article also has something to do with A.I. as well as robotics. Now for those of you who have watched Steven Speilberg's movie A.I. you'd probably know what andriods are, or at least the predicted future of andriod development. Well, the Japanese have developed a new "female" andriod called Repliee Q1 that is the most human looking robot to date.

Now this Repliee Q1 has flexible silicone for skin, can flutter her eyelids, responds to touch and even appears to breathe. Repliee Q1's designer, Professor Ishiguro, believes that although the current model is still far from being able to fool anyone that it is a human, one day will come when "robots could fool us into believing they are human".

Well, from the picture that came with the article, that day seems to be coming near. The "female" robot looks almost real, although since it's only a picture I can't say much about its motion. But I really wonder when the day would come when you'd walk up to a "chio" receptionist at a company's front desk and ask her a bunch of questions only to realise much later that she's an andriod...

Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised - a "female" android called Repliee Q1.

She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner.

She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe.

Click here for the full article.