/ News
Very lifelike humanoid can react to facial expressions, engage in conversation, make eye contact
With his lively eyebrows, winkled cheeks and eyes that follow you around the room - this state-of-the-art robotic head is menacingly lifelike.
The humanoid, known as Ham, has been drawing in crowds with his incredible range of facial expressions at an electronics event in Hong Kong this week.
The head, designed by American robotics designer David Hanson, is able to answer basic questions and can also be used in the simulation of medical scenarios.
Ham is currently on exhibit at the Global Sources spring electronics show at AsiaWorld Expo - the largest event of its kind in the world, with more than 4,000 booths displaying the latest gadgets.
The head is created with malleable material called Frubber using soft-bodied mechanical engineering and nanotechnology.
It contains realistic pores that measure just 4 to 40 nanometers across (there are 10million nanometers in one centimetre).
Using specialised software the machine can recognise and respond to a number of human facial expressions in a natural way.
According to Hanson Robotics's website, the humanoids can actually see your face, make eye contact with you, and understand speech to 'engage you in witty dialogue'.
Such reactions are a major feat of engineering, according to chief designer David Hanson, the founder and and president of Hanson Robotics.
Reactive: The robot smiles using multiple motors - which whir into action and subtly adjust multiple points of articulation around his mouth and brown eyes
State-of-the-art: The head is created with malleable material using soft-bodied mechanical engineering and nanotechnology. It contains realistic pores that measure just 4 to 40 nanometers across (there are 10million nanometers in one centimetre)
It is not the first human-looking robot that his firm has created either. An earlier version of Ham drew headlines as it was sculpted to look like Albert Einstein, complete with a bushy moustache and a shock of white hair.
The Einstein humanoid made facial expressions by using multiple motors - which whir into action and subtly adjust multiple points of articulation around his mouth and brown eyes.
Mr Hanson sees robotics as his calling and works on many fronts, from sculpting features to developing artificial intelligence.
To advance to the next step of producing robots for everyday applications in entertainment, health care and education, he decided to move to Hong Kong with his family - his wife Amanda and their son Zeno.
The city has a booming robotics community with a high amount of expertise and design infrastructure and new technology can be developed at a lower cost than in the US.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3044955/Aye-robot-Amazingly-lifelike-humanoid-incredible-range-facial-expressions.html
/ About us
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.