Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, a director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, Japan has teamed up with ATR or Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International to create modern android robots. They are famous for creating humanlike robots that are designed to transmit presence of an actual person. Some of their models are the Geminoid HI-1 that looks like Hiroshi Ishiguro and the Geminoid F that looks like a woman.
Their newest model is the Telenoid R1, a minimalist humanoid robot that mimics the presence of its distant user. Telenoid R1 is a portable telephone-operated android robot, it only measures 80 centimeters and weighs for only 5 kilograms. It has a minimum design that can distinguish it as human-like robot. Actually the appearance of this newly made android is quite disturbing. It looks like an undeveloped child with no gender.
According to the developers of this telenoid the idea in this project was to create a teleoperated robot that can be female or male, an adult or a youngster, that can be easily transferred, making it suitable for a wide-range of users. The system works by capturing the voice and tracking the head movements of the operator via a computer webcam. An operator sits with a computer with a webcam that sends the voice and head movements to the telenoid. These movements are then being imitated by the telenoid which is sitting beside the messages recipient. The operator can also push buttons to activate different behavior of the telenoid.
The Telenoid R1 robot is designed to improve long-distance communication. Even from its weird-looking appearance Telenoid R1 is sure to add an element of realism when talking to a person in long-distance. Telenoid R1 is really portable due to its small-size body and simple internal structure. The Telenoid R1 only uses 9 dc motors as actuators compared to other Ishiguro’s android which uses 50 pneumatic actuators for Geminoid HI-1 and 12 pneumatic actuators for Geminoid F. Its simplified body helped the developers to cut production cost. The research version of the robot is estimated to cost for about $35,000 and the commercial version is about $8,000. These friendly-creepy robots are expected to hit the market this August.
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