robot (Page 6)

Japanese scientists have developed an incredibly real-looking female robot, made of soft silicone “skin” instead of hard plastic. It can blink and move its hands like a human, and even seems to breathe. Is this Blade Runner come to life, or does it mean we never need to be lonely again? Right now the android, called Repliee Q1, can only sit and flutter her eyelashes, but with 31 tiny motors in her upper body, all powered by remote-control, more movement will eventually be possible.

David Whitehouse writes in BBC News that its creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University, claims that one day androids like this one will fool us into thinking they’re human.

Image: Osaka University
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Lakshmi Sandhana writes in bbcnews.com about an Australian robot arm that draws pictures and is powered by the brain of a rat, which is sitting in a petri dish in the U.S.

The arm holds three colored markers above a white sheet of paper, and makes drawings that resemble those of a three-year-old child. The brain and arm communicate with each other through the internet.

“We are looking at future scenarios where geography won’t matter,” says Guy Ben-Ary, whose lab in Australia contains the robot arm. “The brain of the semi-living could be anywhere in the world, while the body will interface and be fed off it.”
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Artificial intelligence experts have invented a robotic head named Doki, which can scientifically determine how attractive women are to men. But it doesn’t work in reverse, because women’s tastes in men are more complex and aren’t based on looks alone. And a scientist has figured out that we start learning how to kiss while we’re still in the womb.

David Cumming, of Intelligent Earth, says, “It examines a number of facial characteristics to determine what sex someone is, so the more classically feminine a woman looks, then the quicker it will decide what sex they are. Psychological research has shown that a woman’s attractiveness directly relates to her femininity and so we can also use this reading as a measure of a woman’s attractiveness to men.”
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