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In our last World of Science page, we featured a male humanoid robot, and promised to bring you the details of the gynoids (the female robot) this week. Now it's time to keep this promise! We promised to tell you about Repliee Q1expo. Now, going beyond that, we will introduce you to the other humanoid robots as well. They are Repliee Q2expo and Repliee R1.
Repliee Q1 was unveiled at the Expo 2005 exhibition in Japan. This robot was modelled on a newscaster of the NHK service. She (the robot) looked like an average young woman of Asian descent. She has also been referred to as an actroid. She can make some life-like gestures, such as, blinking the eyes, speaking and breathing.
She wore a pink jacket, white shirt, slacks and lace gloves at the exhibition. She had long black hair and a skin made of silicone. Internal sources allow Repliee Q1expo to react naturally by way of the air actuators placed at 42 points of articulation (expression) on her upper body.
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An external air compressor powers her movements. You know what? She is also quick enough to react to or fend off a slap, and imitates humans with slight shifts in position and the appearance of breathing in the chest. Further, she can imitate human movements by facing a person, with reflective dots placed at key points on the body and by moving in the same fashion.
This robot has undergone some further software and cosmetic modifications, and the current version of the android is referred to as Repliee Q2expo. The face of the Repliee Q2expo is more human-like than the Q1expo. She can sense touch and also react to them. She is more life-like than her ancestor and can do more things.
Now, here comes the youngest of the humanoid robot family, Repliee R1; she is the first robot of that kind. She was based on a five-year-old Japanese girl. That's why she is known as the youngest.
Repliee R1 has several points of articulation. She is also good at interacting with children, and studies have shown that babies might believe that she is human. She can move her eyes, eyelids, mouth and neck, and her body is covered with silicone; it even feels like human skin. She has four high sensitivity skin sensors under the skin and so, can also respond to touch.
The way things are developing, the day when we also have our own humanoids to help us with our work, doesn't seem so far away.
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