From ancient times the people tried to recreate themselves. As an example, we can cite the story of the Golem – a human-like creature, which breathed life into a medieval rabbi. The result was sad for both the creator and the people around him. The golem got out of control and caused a lot of trouble.
Engineered Arts – how to create the most realistic robot in the world?
According to Will Jackson, CEO of robotics company Engineered Arts, it is not known what is worse: angry emails accusing his company of creating machines that will replace people in the future, or the question of whether it is possible to have an intimate relationship with robots.
Designed specifically as a platform for development into future robotics technologies, Ameca is the perfect humanoid robot platform for human-robot interaction, Engineered Arts say.
The video for the latest creation of Engineered Arts – a grey-skinned robot named Ameca – went viral last December. In the videos, an android with a metal torso and an incredibly realistic facial expression interacts casually with its creators.
Ameca gasps as the man behind the scenes reaches out to touch his nose. And then she grabs his hand and doesn’t let him touch her. The audience is shocked that the robot wants to draw a line between them and us. Desire, which, in fact, is very human.
Emotions of robots – specialization Engineered Arts
Curiosity, fear and anxiety – the reproduction of these emotions is the main specialization of Engineered Arts. The company earns money by selling its robots for entertainment and training. They are also used by scientists in research, and marketers shoot commercials with their participation. They can be seen in museums, airports and shopping malls, where they interact with visitors. “They’re everywhere there are a lot of people to interact with,” Jackson said.
Machines can operate independently, responding to people’s questions with predefined phrases. Or they can be controlled remotely – as, for example, in a video shot at CES. Shortly, Engineered Arts intends to improve the software of its robots so that they can answer questions without any human intervention.
Works are not just entertainment, but harbingers of the future. As technology improves and the realism of androids increases, the question of how we treat such machines will become more and more relevant.
The simpler, the better
“It’s amazing how easy it is to give a car a smart look,” says Jackson. For example, at the very beginning of his activity, his company invented a trick with language recognition. Instead of programming a chatbot that analyzes people’s speech, Engineered Arts professionals wrote a program that repeated the last sentence heard by the robot, replacing the words ‘You’ and ‘Me’.
The company is headquartered in Falmouth (UK). It is a rather insignificant fishing town with a population of just over 20,000 people. It is located on the southwestern tip of Britain in Cornwall.
Engineered Arts creates its robots from scratch – from casting rubber faces to brain programming. Due to this, its products can be considered unique. Only a division of Disney’s Imagineering, which creates animatronics for its theme parks, can compete with it. The only difference is that Disney does not sell what it creates.