Japanese Inventor Develops a Bald, Legless Robot – Telenoid R1
A Japanese robot designer has just unveiled his latest creation – a strange looking robotic creature called the Telenoid R1. The Telenoid R1 was designed to transmit the presence of a person from a long distance away. Think of this robot as taking a phone call to the next level. Using a webcam along with computer software the robots acts out what the ‘caller’ is doing on the other end. Pretty cool idea, but wouldn’t you just want to watch the digital feed on a TV monitor rather than having a creepy robot act out the movements of the other person? A commercial version of the Telenoid will go on sale later this year for about 5,000.
To operate, the user must sit at a computer with a webcam that tracks the user’s movements and captures their voice. Actuator’s in the robot’s body help it to move in a realistic way. These movements are then mimicked by the Telenoid which is sitting with the message’s recipient. The Telenoid R1 will be demonstrated at this year’s Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria.
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