Reading time: 2 minutes – Spotted on TechCrunch
For cinema, considering robots with human skin has always been obvious, mainly to save on costumes (a leather jacket and a pair of dark glasses in Terminator, and that was it). But in the real world, this is a challenge that researchers are trying to meet with unconvincing results, as an article from TechCrunch describes to us.
In a study published June 25 in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, engineers from the University of Tokyo detailed their method for equipping an animated robot face with living epidermis. To achieve this feat, these Japanese scientists were inspired by the anchoring of skin on the human body to fix and secure this epidermal mask to the artificial manifestation of emotions, such as a smile, for example.
To achieve this result, the researchers had to compose a three-dimensional (3D) model of the face with convex and concave shapes and cultivate tissues capable of covering this shape. To secure this skin, they used a system of “perforation-type anchors” inspired by the ligaments of the skin. Very concretely, the method consists of applying a gel loaded with skin-forming cells on and in orifices specially placed in the structure of the robot.
Does this technique make it possible to replicate the elasticity of a face giving us a reassuring smile? No way. The result is even really scary. For now, with this pink disc which is more reminiscent of a condom or an old Malabar than an expressive face, we have a little difficulty in projecting ourselves.
Robot scars
The scientists at the University of Tokyo are well aware that their demonstration will not reassure people who already have little confidence in the promises of robotics. But the object of this experiment was above all to test this method of fixation inspired by the human body to allow a form as complex and mobile as a face to transmit information such as “I am smiling, I am happy”.
But why would we want to give our robots an epidermis that we have appreciated until now with a chrome-plated stainless steel coating? This skin, because it is alive, has a self-repair capacity. And this ability to heal does not need to be triggered, it is programmed in the cells that make up this biological coating. We would like to have this on our cars to reduce bodywork bills…
This perspective suggests other uses of the properties of human skin adapted to machines: can we imagine reproducing the sensitivity of the skin? Its ability to regulate temperature with perspiration? Or more simply give a machine a human appearance making it indistinguishable from living people? Each advance will be accompanied by the ethical and philosophical questions that science fiction has promised us for decades.
Once we have managed the most urgent thing (namely improving the system to make it less nightmarish), it will be time to move on to the next steps. In particular, growing hairs or white hairs and aging this epidermis, so that we can know if we are dealing with a brand new robot or a second-hand model which has a few wrinkles at the corners of the eyes and spots on hands.
