The Professors Doppelgänger Robot Phone

They may look like twin brothers, but one is man and one is machine. Geminoid HI-1 (japanese) was created by Hiroshi Ishiguro, group leader of ATR Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, as robot clone version of himself. According to Hiroshi, this is the telephone of the future. The bot can be remotely controlled via a motion capture system that tracks Ishiguro’s mouth movements and allows the bot to speak his voice. Ishiguro is mainly using the bot to teach his classes for him. Ishiguro wants to find out if he can really command the attention of a classroom with a mere robot doppelgänger.

Ishiguro thinks future business meetings will have aindroids and humans side by side at the table. Well, lets be positive, it sure would save a lot of business class flights. There is also a nice video of Geminoid HI-1.

Via Engadget, Related: Robot Dance, Social Robots, Child Care Robot.