Hiroshi Ishiguro, one of Japan’s most famous robot makers, caused a splash back in April, when he unveiled Geminoid-F, one of the most realistic humanoids ever. Last month, a variation of the robot, which is named Actroid-F, was shown to the public (Actroid-F is supposed to one day take on the role of a robotic nurse in hospitals).
And over the weekend, the android was used as an actress for the first time, for a play running for two days in Tokyo. “Sayonara” has a real director (a person called Oriza Hirata) and two actresses (American Bryerly Long, next to Geminoid-F). Geminoid-F’s role is a caretaker reciting poetry to Long, who plays a lonely, dying woman.
For the play, the robot’s voice and movements were created by a real person sitting in a soundproof chamber behind the stage. Those movements were detected by cameras and replicated by the android in real-time.
It seems the director was very happy with Geminoid-F’s performance but the human actress on stage was not.
Here’s a video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O87gCOv-X0c&w=640&h=390]
Via BBC
