IEEE Spectrum April, 2010 - 39

By bu i ld i ng hu ma n l i ke rob ots
"Why do you change your clothes?" taining hardware. Yet none of it matches
Ishiguro hopes to decipher what the he says. "Do you change your name? the robots that science fiction promJapanese call sonzaikan-the feeling of So why do you change your clothes? ised the future would bring-Astro Boy,
being in the presence of a human being. Name is identity. Face is identity. But C-3PO, Data, Rosie, David, Number Six.
Where does the sense of humanness the major ity of your [appearance] Today's robots are closer to other applicome from? And can you convey those comes from your clothes. You should not ances in appearance. And even the best of
qualities with a robot?
change your clothes. Do you agree?"
them aren't very good company.
The idea of connecting a person's brain
I meekly suggest that all-black attire
Many roboticists believe this is going
so intimately with a remotely controlled might get a bit hot in the summer.
to change. They have visions of robots
body seems straight out of science fiction.
"We have air conditioners," he says. that will assist us, talk to us, even care
In The Matrix, humans control virtual "Next question."
about us. Social robots are coming to life
selves. In Avatar, the controlled bodies are
For an academic, Ishiguro lives a fran- in labs at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia
alien-human hybrids. In the recent Bruce tic existence. He works at four labs, over- Tech, and elsewhere. Though nobody
Willis movie Surrogates, people control sees some 50 students, is a cofounder of knows yet what types of robots will
robot proxies sent into the world in their a robotics start-up, and constantly trav- become major applications (roboticists
places. Attentive viewers will notice that els to conferences around the world. No avoid the term "killer app," understandIshiguro and the Geminoid have cameo wonder he needs a copy of himself.
ably), they may soon be among us.
roles, appearing in a TV news report on
Ishiguro, who is 46, started buildBut do they have to look like us?
the rapid progress of "robotic surrogacy." ing robots more than a decade ago, after
Some roboticists I spoke to question
Ishiguro's surrogate doesn't have sens- abandoning the idea of becoming an oil whether humanlike androids are a good
ing and actuation capabilities as sophis- painter. One of the first robots he helped idea, or even necessary. One researcher,
ticated as those in the movie. But even put together, Robovie, looked like a who asked not to be named because he
this relatively simple android is giving trash can with arms. Another robot he collaborates with institutions with which
Ishiguro great insight into how our brains worked with, Wakamaru, developed by Ishiguro is affiliated, says the Geminoid
work when we come face to face with a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, resembled is "not very convincing-and a bit creepy."
machine that looks like a person. He's
In some demonstrations, he notes, the
also investigating, with assistance from
android barely moves its eyes and lips,
cognitive scientists, how the operator's
appearing catatonic. On YouTube, many
brain behaves. Teleoperating the android
commenters call videos of the Geminoid
can be so immersive that strange things
"scary" and "freaky." The tech blog
happen. Simply touching the android is
Gizmodo included the android in its list of
enough to trigger a physical sensation in
"10 Creepy Machines From Robot Hell."
him, Ishiguro says, almost as though he
Ishiguro is unfazed. He acknowledges
were inhabiting the robot's body.
that in some situations you don't need or
"Like all Dr. Frankensteins of literawant your robot to resemble a person.
ture, he's raising some deep, powerful
You don't need an android to vacuum
questions about our humanity and our BEhIND thE cUrtaIN: ishiguro teleoperates your house if a saucer on wheels can do
his android using a computer that captures his
creations, and it's scary, but it's also impor- voice and facial expressions.
a better job. And a robotic assistant that
tant that we confront these questions, and phoTo: aTr inTelligenT roboTics and coMMunicaTion
helps an elderly person out of the tub
laboraTories
he's doing that not in the realm of fiction
probably shouldn't sport a human face.
but in the laboratory," says IEEE Fellow an overgrown insect. People had mixed
He's also well aware that, although
Ken Goldberg, a robotics professor at the reactions to those robots, and that got people might better connect with a robot
University of California, Berkeley. "We're him thinking about how crucial appear- when it resembles another human being,
going to learn something about machines- ance is to communication. And yet, he when it gets the nuances wrong it may
but even more about ourselves."
realized, the connection hadn't been seem more like a zombie or an animated
properly investigated.
corpse. The Japanese roboticist Masahiro
iroshi Ishiguro stomps on the
Indeed, consider that the world pop- Mori called this descent into creepiness,
accelerator. The black Mazda RX-8 ulation of industrial and service robots as lifelike appearance is approached but
roars onto the highway, the heavy- is about 8.5 million, according to some not attained, the "uncanny valley."
metal Scorpions blasting from the speak- estimates. That includes manufacturIshiguro says the possibility that his
ers. We're driving to Osaka University's ing robots, palletizing robots, surgical creations might result in revulsion won't
Toyonaka Campus. Ishiguro is wearing robots, bomb-disposal robots, milking stop him from "trying to build the robots
aviator sunglasses, black polyester pants, robots, meat-handling robots, underwater of the future as I imagine them." He is
a black vest on top of a black shirt, along and aerial robots, some 4 million home convinced that human-looking robots
with a black belt, socks, and shoes.
vacuum cleaners, and one that cleans the are a natural interface for humans to
"Give me question," he says, his eyes Louvre's glass pyramid. That's to say noth- interact with and that the uncanny valley
fixed on the road.
ing about the vast assortment of robot dogs, idea may be too simplistic to explain peoI ask whether he always dresses dinosaurs, seals, and other robot toys. It's ple's reactions to robots. We may simply
in black.
a fine bunch of helpful or at least enter- come to accept life- Continued on page 54

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum April, 2010