CES in Las Vegas | Stunning and disturbing humanoid robots

(Las Vegas) A child-sized robot doll twisted and screamed in front of a stunned audience at the big tech show in Las Vegas on Wednesday, where the line between cool and slightly disturbing can sometimes seem thin.

“The eyes are really scary,” exclaims Marcelo Humerez, an exhibitor from Peru who fell in the aisles of the show on the Pedia-Roid (contraction of pediatric and android), a robot intended for medical training.

A few stands farther on, a humanoid robot named Ameca receives a less horrified reception from curious onlookers who observe him discussing while demonstrating a staggering range of motion similar to humans.

“We designed Ameca to be as close to the human as possible in its movements,” Morgan Roe, of UK-based Engineered Arts company, told AFP.

Mr. Roe stands right next to the robot whose gray face moves and blinks as his human sidekick speaks.

“Humans are so complex, so making a robot exactly like a human is next to impossible,” he adds.

“But if we did that, then you wouldn’t be afraid of it, because you would just assume it’s human.” ”

Before reaching this level of realism, there are certain aspects to her creation that reveal that she is not a living creature, instead giving way to a concept called “the valley of the strange”.

“It doesn’t move exactly like a human, it doesn’t express itself, or show its emotions, or speak like a human. It’s the valley of the strange, it’s the part that is scary, ”explains Morgan Roe.

For the robot Pedia-Roid, the terrifying aspect is voluntary, affirms Yusuke Ishii of the Japanese company tmsuk which exhibited the doll.

“We want to create a realistic scenario, that’s why we added some scary noises, it’s to make her behave like a child,” he emphasizes.

According to the company’s brochure, the robot can “realistically simulate the contorting movements of a child who is unwilling to receive treatment.”