Over 100 experts, 12 international organisations and more than 120 companies were represented at Beijing’s World Robot Exhibition. There they “met” robots that act just like humans like Xiaolou. The humanoid robot was made by Chinese company Tami Intelligence and it is known for its capacity to interact with people. So how is it possible?
“The robot has plenty of facial expressions, and it can give people a good feeling of interaction. And it can follow the human by which I mean it can imitate your gestures when you are in front of it. The robot recognises if you are male of female and also tells your age and whether you are happy and the degree of your happiness,” explained Lui Boyi product manager Tami Intelligence Technology
But it was a female who stole the show – don’t they always. Android Geminoid F is her name and visitors crowded around to talk to her and take a snap or two. The robot was created by Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratory at Osaka University. They say it is still a work in progress.
“Of course, our final goal is creating some artificial intelligence system out of showing intelligence by using this robot. But still its difficult for example the voice recognition system doesn’t work, especially in a noisy environment,” Kohei Ogawa a teacher at Osaka University told reporters.
A large section of the exhibition was devoted to robots for industry. Many manufacturers are looking for ways to cut back on human labour and the exhibition showed trends for future development making it popular with investors looking for business opportunities.