A humanoid obsessive has built an incredibly realistic female robot from scratch - and it's got more than a passing resemblance to Avengers star Scarlett Johansson.
Ricky Ma, a 42-year-old product and graphic designer, has spent more than $50,000 (£34,000) and a year and a half creating the female robot prototype, Mark 1.
The designer confirmed the scarily lifelike humanoid had been modelled on a Hollywood star, but wanted to keep her name under wraps.
It responds to a set of programmed verbal commands spoken into a microphone and has moving facial expressions, but Ricky says creating it wasn't easy.
He said he was not aware of anyone else in Hong Kong building humanoid robots as a hobby and that few in the city understood his ambition.
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[...] According to Fan, Project GR00T is a cornerstone of his newly founded GEAR Lab (short for "Generalist Embodied Agent Research"). During his time at Nvidia, Fan has specialized in using simulations of physical worlds to train AI models, and now that approach is extending to robotics. "At GEAR, we are building generally capable agents that learn to act skillfully in many worlds, virtual and real," wrote Fan in a tweet. "Join us on the journey to land on the moon."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by linkdude64 on Saturday April 02 2016, @03:55PM
He designed an extremely lifelike robot/android/whatever for a fraction of the budget, with a fraction of the manpower, of many of the other similar androids we've seen as of late. That's impressive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 02 2016, @04:28PM
She's kind of hot, too. I wonder how extensive his product testing has been ;-)
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday April 02 2016, @06:50PM
> She's kind of hot, too.
HANDS OFF, MEATBAG. Stick to your race.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 02 2016, @08:57PM
Bender? Where's the Olde Fortran? The fridge is empty again.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday April 02 2016, @04:41PM
I think if he hangs up a shingle to create your own customized bot to look like whomever you wish, he'll get enough orders to last him the rest of his life.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ticho on Saturday April 02 2016, @04:46PM
Lifelike? Are you kidding? That thing is so deep in uncanny valley it's not even funny. Its face looks like a broken photograph of someone who vaguely looks like that actress.
(Score: 2) by CortoMaltese on Saturday April 02 2016, @05:30PM
While I agree with the fact that it doesn't look anything like Scarlett Johansson, I don't agree it look uncanny-vallish, of course it lacks the minutiae of facial expression (being made by one man and all) but I think the face is very well sculpted and actually...beautiful.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday April 02 2016, @07:23PM
Impressive?
He just concentrated on the facial movements. The rest is pretty much junk.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday April 02 2016, @10:56PM
For a single man with $50,000 it's absolutely impressive. This is equal or greater than a dedicated company could do with millions and a team of experts just a few years ago. I'm sure you've seen the "receptionist" robots that do nothing but sit there and talk - this guy has demonstrated a geometric reduction in cost of development and expertise needed to create those. In other words, it's disruptive.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday April 02 2016, @05:21PM
Seriously, that was my first thought....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 02 2016, @06:52PM
The best defense against vampires is the Buffinator B-1000
(Score: 5, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 02 2016, @05:53PM
Whatever you do, do NOT put the off switch in her robot vagina. And for the love of crap DON'T make a prototype big sister for her and hide it away. That didn't end well for anyone. And if you ignore all this, *dismantle her when disposing of her.* Leave something--someONE--like that in the trash and she'll come back to haunt you.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 02 2016, @09:29PM
He put a Chinese finger trap in there.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Nuke on Saturday April 02 2016, @06:52PM
He said he was not aware of anyone else in Hong Kong building humanoid robots as a hobby
I must admit I am also not aware of anyone else in Hong Kong building humanoid robots; I must get out more.
few in the city understood his ambition
Did he do a poll of them? Perhaps that was his polite way of saying they misunderstood his ambition, which is not suprising (has he told us everything about it?) Anyway, don't lose sleep over it mate - I gave up on people understanding my ambitions a long time ago.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday April 02 2016, @07:27PM
Even his wife didn't understand.... Oh wait, he didn't have a wife.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 02 2016, @09:30PM
He does now ... and she even understands sudo make me a sandwich