Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
AMECA the new humanoid robot, on show at CES 2022(1), has been described variously as “haunting” (Newsbreak, 2022) , “terrifyingly realistic” (New York Post, 2022) , “totally surreal” (CNET, 2022) and “freaky as you would expect” (New Atlas, 2021), which makes one wonder exactly what this robot is all about. Indeed, perhaps that you will concur, after seeing the following Youtube video.
AMECA was produced by the British Company Engineered Arts, Ltd. A company that brings together performance arts and robotic engineering, originally creating mixed media exhibits for museums and science centers in the UK. The company currently rents the humanoid robots that it produces, while specializing in humanoid facial expression for the design of entertainment robots.
Engineered Arts Ltd., uses a company-developed 3D animation-type platform called Tritium for programming the humanoid expressions, and an in-house robot “inhabiter” program called TinMan for remote multilingual speech generation and synthesizing. Tritium 3D animations are downloaded directly to the humanoid robot, whereas for speech, it is actually a real live human being (an “inhabiter”) that is responding (in any language) remotely via AMECA’s camera and speaker. Thus, the company intends to open the programing of humanoid robots to the public at large, freeing them from coders-only, while acknowledging that speech should still remain generated by humans, if the humanoid is to be of best service and use, beyond mechanical automation.
Engineered Arts robots rely on many patented inventions, such as inhabiter programs recited, for example, in the University of Florida patent, US9987749B2, titled Control interface for robotic humanoid avatar system and related methods.
Note
(1) CES 2022 - Computer Electronics Show, Las Vegas, Jan 5 - 8, 2022. CES is one of the most influential technology shows in the world. Game-changing technologies such as videocasette players (1970), CD-players and camcorders (1981), DVDs (2003), OLED TV (2008), 3D HDTV (2009), tablets and netbooks (2010), ultrabooks (2012), driverless cars (2013) and 3D-printers (2014), were all first shown at CES, over the course of a 50-year history.
References
CES 2022 https://www.ces.tech/
Engineered Arts https://www.engineeredarts.co.uk/
https://www.engineeredarts.co.uk/robothespian-will-jackson-in-the-impossible-tedx-talk/
Engineered Arts – Tritium https://www.engineeredarts.co.uk/software/tritium/
Engineered Arts (wiki) - Tinman https://wiki.engineeredarts.co.uk/Tinman_Telepresence_without_internet
Dent, S. T.(Dec. 6, 2021). AMECA shows off more humanlike facial expressions – Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/ameca-robot-shows-off-more-human-like-facial-expressions-093038139.html
Lavars, N. (Dec. 6, 2021). AMECA, the future of robotics is as freaky as you would expect. New Atlas. https://newatlas.com/robotics/ameca-humanoid-robot-video/
Patel, N. V. (Dec. 3, 2021). The robot’s expressions will freak you out. The Daily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/humanoid-robot-ameca-with-freakishly-realistic-facial-expressions-by-engineered-arts-makes-debut
Reilly, C. (Jan. 5, 2022). AMECA the robot is more human (and haunting) than I ever imagined. https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2478005982964/ameca-the-robot-is-more-human-and-haunting-than-i-ever-imagined
Roth, E. (Dec. 5, 2021). A humanoid robot makes lifelike facial expressions. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/5/22819328/humanoid-robot-eerily-lifelike-facial-expressions
Staff (Jan. 7, 2022). Meet AMECA the humanoid robot that is terrifyingly realistic. New York Post. https://nypost.com/video/meet-ameca-the-humanoid-robot-that-is-terrifyingly-realistic/
Staff (Jan. 5 2022). Meeting AMECA, the future of humanoid robots, was totally surreal. CNET. https://www.cnet.com/videos/meeting-ameca-the-future-of-humanoid-robots-was-totally-surreal/
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