Source: AFP
A disembodied female head hung and grimaced, exuding the facial expressions of a user on a nearby laptop, as visitors to the China Humanitarian Robot Developers Conference watched in fascinated concern.
The wide, slightly frantic eyes left no doubt that the technology was firmly in “uncanny valley” territory, but the field is nevertheless attracting increasing attention in China, from both investors and the government.
Outside the boardrooms Thursday, about 30 companies showed off bionic arms, flickering faces and bipedal robots that sauntered across the room, steadying themselves when protesters knocked them off balance.
“I feel that the humanoid robot industry is booming… These displays are no longer just concepts. Many of them are already physical and interactive,” visitor Jiang Yunfei told AFP.
Source: AFP
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A crowd gathered at a demonstration for Fourier Intelligence, which has begun mass production of what it says is a world-first GR-1 bipedal robot.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met Fourier leaders on an inspection tour of Shanghai in December, a sign of the growing importance the central government has placed on emerging technologies such as robotics.
Fourier’s founder told the South China Morning Post that Xi had asked if it was possible to talk to the bipedal robot and have it perform basic tasks.
Beijing is not the only interested party.
“These will be widely used in two or three years,” one optimistic investor told AFP, gesturing to a similar robot made by a different company.
He said he expected they would be used primarily to care for the elderly, a function some see as vital as China’s huge population shrinks ages and care options.
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/82a38ad8e7d1a28f.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
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In the disembodied head booth, the team said their ultimate goal was to make faceless robots like the GR-1 look more human.
“We hope they can enter the home service industry,” said Zhu Yongtong, a member of Shanghai’s DROID ROBOT team.
Another attempt at humanization by another company was to outfit robots with visors that project video-generated eyes.
“As a parent, you can implant your own digital doppelganger image into this robot to make a presentation, which will allow this robot to have a friendlier human-robot dialogue with your child,” said Ennio Zhang , GravityXR’s director of marketing and sales. AFP.
Source: AFP
The mood at this week’s conference was one of optimism, with an eye on the future.
“I think China’s humanoid robots have developed into a very advanced position and can compete with other manufacturers in the world,” said a 27-year-old visitor surnamed Wang.
“Now many robots still look ‘clumsy’, they still look like robots, but once we collect a lot more data… the robot will become more and more human-like,” Jiang said.
Source: AFP