One Chinese robotic company thinks it has finally breached the ‘uncanny valley’ of human-looking robots, avoiding the close-but-still-eerily-fake effect that has plagued most human simulations up till now. DS Doll Robotic Head’s realistic looking product contains a movable mechanical structure coated in a silicone “skin,” reports The Scotsman. The head can be controlled by a smartphone or a PlayStation controller.
The robot can also listen and and answer questions using voice recognition software, similar to that of a smartphone. The companies who collaborated to create the head, Doll Sweet Dolls and EX Doll, are hoping to launch a crowd-funding campaign so they can produce English and Japanese versions.
Paul Lumb, head of Cloud Climax, says the prototype is a “game changer.” It is priced around $6,000.
While the head does not have a rotatable neck, it will fit on all the company’s other doll bodies, which have flexible limbs that allow them to “move as a real person.” Lumb says that a fully autonomous body is still 15 to 20 years down the line.
The head is expected to arrive on shelves at the end of 2018.
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