海角大神

Dr. David Hanson has been working to make realistic human-like robots for over a decade. At last week's South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, he showed a small audience that he is getting close.

鈥淚n the future, I hope to do things such as go to school, study, make art, start a business, even have my own home and family,鈥� the subject of Dr. Hanson鈥檚 demo .

Sophia is a robotic head designed by Hanson that looks almost, but not quite human. Its design was based on Audrey Hepburn and Hanson鈥檚 own wife. Its mind is operated by advanced robotic systems that allow it to communicate.

Hanson鈥檚 message to the audience: Get ready for this kind of human-like robot to one day walk among you.

Sophia鈥檚 primary function, as it eloquently told the audience itself, is to talk with people. The robot sports patented skin that resembles humans, the ability to form 62 facial expressions, and cameras in its eyes to see. Voice technology allows it to verbally respond to humans and both Intel and IBM are exploring how they could integrate some of their own advanced artificial intelligence , according to CNBC.com.

The advanced aesthetics and artificial intelligence should help Sophia get smarter and better at talking with time. Improvement will help advance its purpose: to 鈥渇ulfill the psychological need for ,鈥� according the Hanson Robotics鈥� website, Dr. Hanson鈥檚 company. Eventually, the company believes there will be potential for these robots in therapy, research, education, and healthcare.

Other robots are being used in similar, but less ambitious capacities already, 海角大神 reported in early March. And Michael Gennert, director of Robotics Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, explained the potential for robots to participate in our day-to-day lives is enormous.

鈥淸Robots] will be so hugely integrated into our lives, we won't even think of them as robots. But they will be,鈥� said Dr. Gennert in early March.

Whether the people will want those robots to look like them is less clear.

The 鈥渦ncanny valley鈥� effect describes the sense of revulsion some people feel toward animated creatures that look almost, but not exactly, natural. It accurately describes the feelings some first observers had toward Sophia.

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Despite his bucolic vision, watching Hanson interact with Sophia made me uncomfortable. I find that head just as frightening as the robotic beasts that Boston Dynamics periodically sets loose.

But Hanson Robotics doesn鈥檛 seem to mind. All of their robots are designed to closely resemble humans and are usually based off specific templates, from the to a roboticized portrait of Philip K. Dick, designed to look and act like the late author.

鈥�20 years from now, I believe human-like robots like this will walk among us, will help us, they will play with us, they will teach us鈥� the artificial intelligence will evolve to the point where they will truly be our friends,鈥� Hanson said at the demo.