Scientists have developed skin that is supposed to allow robots to imitate human facial expressions such as smiling. For the moment, it’s hard not to be frightened by the result.
When we imagine what a humanoid robot could look like, two images generally come to mind. One is that of a clearly mechanical silhouette with a head, two arms and two legs, like this robot that manages to fold laundry, clean a table or even prepare a package. The other represents a very “real” human, without anything being able to distinguish him from us. But we are still very far from reaching this degree of realism.
The uncanny valleytheory saying that The more a robot resembles a human being, the more the slightest of its imperfections seems disturbing, even monstrous, to us., is not yet crossed. Yet scientists are working on it. The most complex part to reproduce is undoubtedly the human face with all the micro-expressions of which he is capable. To achieve this, some researchers have developed a system that allows a robot to guess when you are going to smile and do it before you. Others have gone even further.
This living skin makes robots smile, literally
In order to make robotic faces more realisticscientists from the University of Tokyo and Harvard created a “living” skin, close to that of humans. Flexible, it can be placed on a flat surface or in 3D like the head of a robot, which allows it, for example, to smile in a more natural way. You can see in the video embedded in the study that it’s not there yet. The skin made here has two advantages. The first is thatit does not need to be attached to the robot. It holds together thanks to a system of cutaneous ligaments made of collagen and elastin.
Read also – To evolve, artificial intelligence needs a body according to Huawei
The other particularity is thatit is self-regenerating. “Unlike other self-healing materials, which require heat or pressure to trigger adhesion on cut surfaces, this equivalent can regenerate defects through cell proliferation without any trigger“, the researchers specify. We can therefore imagine that it will also interest humans for medical or aesthetic purposes.
Source : Cell Reports Physical Science
