Robots Perform Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” Dance

The King of Pop would have been proud. As a man who pushed the boundaries of technology himself, from his backyard Never Land, to sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber (is that actually true?), to his cryogenic chamber (is that actually true?), to showing us the versatility of plastic surgery, Michael Jackson was one of those multi-billionaires who liked to spend money on really neat things.

Well, some other really neat things have taken notice. The video below is a compilation of robots dancing–or appearing to dance–to Jackson’s “Thriller.” I recognize the Nao Robots performing their eight minute dance at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The original score was not Michael Jackson, but who cares, this is a fun YouTube video and listening to “Thriller” never gets old. And while you’re bobbing your head at your cubicle instead of taking care of that thing your boss needs pronto, you get to check out some pretty nifty moves from these robots of all shapes and sizes. The complexity and smoothness of some of the dances are impressive. I have to admit the synchrony at that part–you know, when MJ and all the zombies line up and they start marching towards the girl and he’s got some really big contact lenses in–yeah, the synchrony of the robots at that part is way better than in the original video.

Seeing as how Michael Jackson probably grew up doing the robot a lot, I think it’s poetic that now robots get to do the Michael Jackson–without the soul for getting down!

Latest Geminoid Robot Looks More Human

The Uncanny Valley is a pit of doom for robots, few that dare enter its depths will ever emerge again. Yet the latest realistic robot from genius Hiroshi Ishiguro is as close to spanning the valley as any machine I’ve seen. Referred to as Geminoid-DK, the robot is a replica of Henrik Sharfe of Aalborg University in Denmark. This thing is amazing looking. Unlike many previous Geminoids we’ve seen in the past, Sharfe’s robotic copy is almost real enough to pass as human. Almost. Movements and expressions aren’t quite there yet, but when it’s sitting still – wow, this robot is getting close to the goal. Check out Geminoid-DK in the videos below and see if you agree. From some angles this guy is creepy, from others it’s nearly friendly. Geminoid-DK shows that the aim of creating a life-like robot that humans can accept may be nearer than we think.

Built by ATR and Kokoro in Japan, Geminoid-DK is the first model of Geminoid to be hosted outside of Japan. It will be used at Aalborg University by Sharfe and his colleagues to explore human-robot interaction. According to their website, the university’s Centre for Robotics Research will aim to answer the following broad philosophical questions: What is a human? What is presence? What is a relation? What is identity? I’m clueless as to the details of the experiments the team hopes to run, but I can guess that Geminoid-DK will be spending quite a bit of time meeting and communicating with visiting humans to judge their reactions.

As many answers as the Geminoid-DK project will generate, I’m not sure the robot itself represents a great technological achievement. You can see fleshless versions of the bot on its Facebook page, and none of the press seems to indicate that the armatures have been improved greatly over previous models. Yet if it’s not more sophisticated than other robots, Geminoid-DK still manages to be a better illusion in my opinion. How? I’m not sure. It might be that the face-molding and hand-molding procedures used on Sharfe (seen in videos here and here) have been improved. Certainly the eyes are amazing, and we know how important eyes are in human-robot interaction. It could be that each Geminoid is a piece of art and some are simply going to be better than others. It might be that the copy of Sharfe actually isn’t any more real than earlier models of Ishiguro himself, it’s just that I’m more used to European faces than Asian ones because I grew up in Texas. Technique, art, or culture – hopefully Sharfe’s research will determine which is the driving factor of his clone’s success.