The US Hanson Robotics company has recently showed a robot with a woman’s face named Sofia. The skin on the face and neck is made of the elastic synthetic Frubber material, simulating the skin. Beneath this fake skin, there are miniature motors, which are responsible for the robot’s facial expressions. Due to the cameras, built in the eyes and the Character Engine AI software the robot remembers the interlocutor, recognizes speech and knows how to take part in a relaxed conversation. During the conversation, Sofia is able to reflect emotions on its face. According to the developers, it performs 62 facial movements at this stage. If a person gets silent at some moment, but his/her face remains sad or funny, the robot will notice this and react accordingly.
Sophia’s answers sound as memorized answers from an encyclopedia. Responding to the question “Will you kill people?” the robot gave a positive answer that the journalist was greatly surprised with. It could have been a joke of the robot’s creator David Hanson, but who knows the truth? In any case, the company’s engineers will continue working on the creation of an ideal robot that would be able to become a full member of an industrial society and find its niche in the field of medicine, entertainment, and other industries that involve communicating with people.
