Meet the Geminoid DK, who looks exactly like Associate Professor Henrik Scharfe of Aalborg University in Denmark. If you're wondering why on Earth someone would want an exact robotic double of themselves, besides being TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY AWESOME, the Geminoid is going to be used for researching "emotional affordances" in human-robot interaction, the novel notion of "blended presence," as well as cultural differences (from different continents) in the perception of robots.
posted by amro on Mar 7, 2011 - 32 comments

"A ball-throwing robot with visual feedback" sounds dull, so let's hide the robot arm in a plush seal suit! Now that ball-throwing robot with stereo vision looks like a seal playing basketball! Just ignore the robotic hand coming out of it's mouth, and the un-seal-like movements. (via)
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 2, 2011 - 32 comments

Meet Actroid-F, the "world's first true Android", unveiled this month at a laboratory fair at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Designed to be used as an observer in hospitals to gauge patient reactions, the robot can replicate surprisingly subtle facial movements. Previously.
posted by Dragonness on Oct 28, 2010 - 58 comments

Botjunkie fulfills all your robot needs, from balancing, cooperating, dancing, aggressive quadrotors (previously); through other combined or perching flying bots (though the birds object sometimes); to the hideous dancing, crying, kissing, babies of the uncanny valley; to the dextrous everyday pancake, chef and origami bots.
posted by TheophileEscargot on Aug 3, 2010 - 5 comments

Video of horrific, Japanese maggot-man robot allegedly designed to act as a physical presence during phone calls. More info and photos here.
posted by picea on Aug 2, 2010 - 90 comments

David Byrne writes three thoughtful essays on robots, song, and the uncanny valley on the occasion of the creation of a robot which sings in his voice at a Madrid museum: Visiting the robot factory in Texas, regarding the uncanny valley, on machines and souls.
posted by whir on Aug 8, 2008 - 15 comments

The uncanny valley just got deeper. "Treat yourself to the perfect woman."
posted by loquacious on May 27, 2008 - 100 comments

The Waseda-Docomo face robot No. 2 is a 3D robotic model of a human face with 56 degrees of freedom. It can mimic any human face with an average accuracy of 3.5mm. Watching it in action is kind of creepy. [via Make]
posted by pombe on Sep 19, 2007 - 19 comments