This video prompts at least two questions, both beginning with "Why": Why is Disney trying to perfect convincing eye contact in its animatronics? And why does the robot they've chosen not have skin?
Having finally got round to reading this tab I that had open for ages I might have an answer. Answering in reverse order: The robot above has no skin because Disney's worried this would make its experiments in interactive, human/autoanimatroic experience look too much like a sex robot. And Disney is building sex robots.
I suspect the real reason is the same as behind GoogleX – they make so much money they have to blow masses of it on "R&D" expenses in order not to pay tax on it.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I wouldn't be surprised if they had an eye on replacing walkaround characters at the parks with eye-contacting AI androids at some point in the future, and remove the fallible human element.
I remember the walkaround characters having MUCH bigger eyes. Can robots do this? https://slepkane.blogspot.com/2014/12/putting-gaston-in-his-place-attitudes.html
ReplyDeleteWow, that is AMAZING. No, robots certainly can't do that, but they also don't sweat in the hot Florida sun or need to take pee breaks.
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