New Geminoid is out !

The first caucasian looking Geminoid robot has been built. For those who not know, Geminoid is like a robotic clone of a human being. Iroshi Ishiguro is the father of the first robots of this kind, he actually cloned his body and the one of his wife into super realistic robots that can be remotely controlled to give courses, conferences, etc.

While the first versions where already amazing it was quite easy to distinguish the robot from the human on a picture. With this last version it is becoming more tricky, and even the motion (eyes, mouth) is pretty much realistic. While those robots are more a technical demonstration of the hardware improvement, they ask a long list of questions regarding their potential application, but also the likelihood of people to attribute them personality, feelings and mind...

Most of people are still not ready to attribute a robot with a mind, but what about an entity that they cannot really distinguish from a human based on its physical aspect? Geminoid is still lying in the depths of the Uncanny Valley (it is at the same time too close to a human and clearly not natural, so it is scarry) but what about a few generations from this one? Maybe at some point we will have to ask people what they would do with a turtle lying on its back on the desert, to detect if they are robots or humans... (check Blade Runner if you don't get the reference ;-) )