MEET Ray, a new talking-head robot with a warning for humanity: “We have lost the way, greed has poisoned men’s souls.”
The body-less bot, unveiled by Korean researchers, was recorded going on a dark tangent about how humans have “barricaded the world with hate”.
“More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness,” Ray continued.
“Without these qualities, life will be violent, and all will be lost.”
Ray is a new type of audio-animatronic robot head from researchers at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
The robot is different from other humanoids, as it very obviously is lacking a body – but for good reason.
In a recently published paper, researchers Kyu Min Park, Jeongah Cheon, and Sehyuk Yim said they aimed to build a robot that didn’t incite the ‘uncanny valley’ feeling among human users.
The 'uncanny valley' theory assumes that an entity appearing almost human sparks eerie feelings within viewers.
In this case, robots and humanoids that look very similar to humans but are distinctly not human can provoke this kind of psychological response.
The researchers call it an “emotional rejection” of the robot, which is why they deliberately designed it with only rough human features.
However, other humanoids with skin-like textures, moving eyes and teeth are frequently dubbed ‘creepy’ by onlookers.
According to the new paper, several studies have shown that the uncanny valley effect can be significantly reduced by dehumanising the robots, or by using a more robotic appearance.
“The underlying idea of this research was to avoid the uncanny valley effect of animatronic robots using a minimal and artistic design,” they wrote in their paper.
“Instead of designing a detailed or realistic appearance, we focused on satisfying people’s expectations about the robot’s voice, motion, and their harmony.”
Ray’s face has been 3D-printed into 17 layers, mimicking the general shape of the eyes, nose, mouth and chin to avoid evoking any unsettling feelings.
The robot relies on a tendon-based system that allows for smooth, fast motions in its face.
These plastic layers then automatically contort to the motions of specific audio, such as speech or even singing.
“Animatronic robots that simulate the lively and realistic motions of creatures can be excellent robotic platforms for social interaction with people,” the researchers wrote.
“In particular, the robot head is a very important part of expressing various emotions and generating human-friendly and aesthetic impressions.”
Experts believe robots can be used in education and health care, such as helping autistic children boost their social skills.
Ray acts more like a puppet than a true artificially intelligent (AI) humanoid, researchers wrote.
It essentially spits out whatever researchers give it, without the ability to think for itself through generative AI.
The robot has been trained to copy people with human motion tracking skills that allow it to both regurgitate a speech and belt out angelic song.
Currently, Ray is just a prototype.
But researchers want to increase Ray’s size to that of a real human head – or even turn it into a giant installation art piece.
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