At the last SIGGRAPH 2018, which took place in August in Vancouver, an amazing robot literally blew everyone away. Called ‘SEER’ which stands for ‘Simulative Emotional Expression Robot,’ this android created by the Japanese designer and artist Takayushi Todo is able to reproduce human expressions almost perfectly.
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An almost lifelike machine?
Fitted with multiple sensors, this adorable robot is able to interact with its interlocutor by looking them straight in the eye while imitating their facial expressions. Equipped with cameras implanted in its ocular holes, SEER records the almost imperceptible movements of our face in real-time and imitates an individual with disconcerting perfection by frowning, blinking or rolling his blue eyes from right to left.
Although it can obviously only move the upper part of its face, this robot (which looks a lot like Casper the ghost), remains incredibly expressive. Presented for the moment as a simple prototype ready to be upgraded, SEER could perhaps in the future become a true robotcompanion with which to interact.
