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
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
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
The tradition of making
Japanese dolls, called ningyo—meaning human figure—goes back as far as 10,000 years to clay figures made during the Jomon period. The more recent rise in popularity, though, is most often traced to
Hina Matsuri--Girls' Day, or the Doll Festival, celebrated on March 3--originating during the Edo period. These
antique ningyo are highly sought after by
collectors, such as the American
expert Alan Pate, who has written a
number of articles on the subject. The modern Japanese doll culture, however, is anything but traditional. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ningyo tradition was exported to make
toys for the West (
previously featured on MeFi), and has culminated in popular Barbie-type dolls such as
Superdollfie and
others. Contemporary artists have transformed the Japanese doll tradition into something else entirely:
Simon Yotsuya,
Ryo Yoshida,
Koitsukihime,
Yoko Ueno,
Mario A.,
Etsuko Miura, and
Kai Akemi. A number of these artists were featured in the
Dolls of Innocence exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Of course, notable artists outside Japan have worked with dolls before, including
Hans Bellmer, who inspired much of the artwork in
Innocence, the follow-up to Ghost in the Shell. Explore more:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
[Several links are nsfw.]
posted by monju_bosatsu
on Mar 24, 2006 -
11 comments
Making huge leaps between memepool and Stanislaw Lem (all in one day), I stumbled upon an interesting connection.
This link describes an extremely interesting phenomenon that I find tangentally represented in
Solaris. Simulacra of all kinds in literature and film has always interested me, from
Blade Runner, to
A.I. As Halloween approaches, I'd like to know what other MeFiers have seen or read that has hit them in the deepest part of their 'uncanny valley'.
posted by oflinkey
on Oct 24, 2002 -
66 comments
fun with faces. using applets,
ken perlin built an interactive facial-expression thingy.
i found this site because ken is responsible for the cute lil heart animation at google. there are quite a few interesting thingamabobs to check out at his site.
posted by acridrabbit
on Feb 14, 2001 -
4 comments
