Kodomoroid and Otonaroid

source: japaneseengadget

お台場の日本科学未来館は、ヒューマノイドロボットの体験型展示「アンドロイド-人間って、なんだ？」を6月25日より公開します。

人間そっくりなアンドロイドの研究者として知られる石黒浩教授（大阪大学特別教授）を総合監修に迎え、新開発となる子ども型ロボット「コドモロイド」、成人女性型「オトナロイド」、そして人間の特徴を極限までそぎ落とした「テレノイド」を展示します。

常設展となる今回の展示は、JST戦略的創造研究推進事業（CREST）による「共生社会に向けた人間調和型情報技術の構築」研究の携帯型遠隔操作アンドロイド開発の一環。

阪大の石黒教授は、人型ロボットを通じた「人間とは何か」の研究で知られる著名な研究者。特殊シリコンに包まれた石黒氏のロボットは、見た目が非常に人に近く、人以上になまめかしさを感じます。

コドモロイドは、人間の子どもの形をした遠隔操作型のアンドロイド。見た目は子どもですがアナウンサーの役割を果たし、地球上の出来事や宇宙の天気予報などを伝えます。子どもの形のロボットに地球上の問題を読ませることで、見た人感情にゆさぶりをかけるアート作品でもあるそうです。

オトナロイドは、対話と操作に主眼をおいたアンドロイドで、至近距離での対話などでアンドロイドとの付き合い方に脳がなじんでくる、そんな感覚を体験できるもの。

テレノイドは、「必要最小限の人間らしさとはなにか」をテーマにした対話型のアンドロイドです。体型や顔つきなど特定の人間の要素をそぎ落とすことで、いろいろな相手を重ねられるとしています。

日本未来科学館の入場料は大人620円、18才以下は210円。

石黒教授といえば、自分そっくりのコピーロボット (Geminoid Hiroshi Ishiguro-1、通称イシグロイド)を制作して娘さんを大泣きさせたり、成人女性をモデルにしたジェミノイドF (約1000万円)はタカシマヤで働くなど、不気味の谷底の探索者として知られてきた日本が誇る研究者のひとり。

個人を識別する要素をそぎ落として人間らしい存在感だけを残す試みのテレノイドは、携帯サイズで3G回線につながる「リアルアンドロイド携帯」ことエルフォイドP1という派生型も存在します。
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source: pcworld

They might not be your idea of the ideal museum guide, but two androids designed to be lifelike have landed “jobs” at a prestigious Japanese technology center.

Named Kodomoroid and Otonaroid, the droids are designed as hyper-realistic androids that look like a girl and a woman, respectively.

At a press event, former astronaut Mamoru Mohri, director of the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in Tokyo, presented Otonaroid with its official credentials.

Otonaroid accepted the paper, awkwardly grasping it with its fingers coated with synthetic skin. The robot’s business card, which bears the title “science communicator,” was handed out to reporters. It chatted with attendees after Kodomoroid announced the latest earthquake news.

Powered by compressed air and servomotors, the androids can be remote controlled but they cannot walk around.

They can move their upper bodies, arms, fingers and heads and also show a range of facial expressions while lip-synching prerecorded speech.

Kodomoroid is linked to the Internet and will read out the latest news when the machines go on display from Wednesday. Otonaroid can be controlled by visitors so they can experience what it’s like to have a robot surrogate.

A third droid being put on display at the Miraikan is Telenoid, a toddler-sized, remote-controlled humanoid that was first shown off in 2010 as a way to convey emotions through a machine surrogate. Lacking the realism of Kodomoroid and Otonaroid, its pale body has been compared, unfavorably, to an overgrown fetus.

They’re the handiwork of a team led by Hiroshi Ishiguro, an Osaka University and Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) roboticist who has been creating extremely lifelike androids for years. He’s known for creating an android “clone” called Geminoid that is the spitting image of himself.

“Until now, you could only see androids in research labs, so having them as permanent museum exhibits is an advance,” Ishiguro said at the press event. “Their hands move and their faces have move natural expressions.”

A kind of “Pinocchio” moment occurred when Kodomoroid asked Ishiguro why he had created it. He responded that he wanted to create a child news announcer.

Ishiguro and Mohri conceded that the technology still has plenty of kinks, as seen in a hiccup during the event when Otonaroid failed to respond when it was asked to introduce itself.

The machines join Japan’s most famous humanoid, Honda’s Asimo, among the robot exhibits at the museum and are meant to anticipate a time when androids are so lifelike that humans may have difficulty distinguishing them, a scenario raised in the classic science fiction film “Blade Runner.” They’re experiments designed to provoke questions about what it means to be human.

“I hope these new science communicators can help increase the numbers of return visitors to the museum,” Mohri said.