Researchers have developed a
'spooky' robot that can put on your friend's face, predict your mood and even guess your age.
The 60-centimetre-high robot, called SociBot-Mini, was built by Will Jackson and his colleagues at Engineered Arts in Penryn, UK.
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The robot has a transparent plastic face with contours for a nose, mouth and eyes, and is backlit with a digital projector.
It can display a generic face or create one based on a headshot of a friend or colleague to add telepresence to voice calls, researchers said.
"It's as spooky as all hell," Jackson told 'New Scientist'.
"We've tried it with a couple of our telecommuting colleagues in meetings and when it suddenly turns and joins in the conversation as our colleague Dan, and with his face, it is quite amazing. But you get used to it quickly," he said.
The robot uses a depth-sensing camera to capture and recognise gestures. It can also capture facial expressions using a webcam.
Computer vision software lets it recognise people and work out their mood.
It also has some understanding of speech and comes with chatbot software based on Rosette, which in 2011 won the Loebner prize, awarded for a computer's ability to hold simple conversations.
"It'll become a butler who knows you inside out," said Jackson.
