Five-foot six-inch Actroid F or Geminoid F is a female human android simulation that is capable of eye movements, response to eye-to-eye contact and recognition of body language. Geminoids are thus called because they replicate humans quite closely and are operated remotely.
To measure the technological progress in such replication of human persons and to determine whether this progress is indeed beneficial, Dr David Silvera-Tawil conducted a two-part test using the Geminoid F designed and developed by Professor Yoshio Matsumoto at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tokyo.
Initially, Dr. Silvera-Tawil seated Actroid F next to a real person while wearing identical clothing. Participants of the test were each given five seconds to identify the real human between the two. In the second segment of the test, Dr. Silvera-Tawil repeated the scenario with two humans sitting next to each other. Half of the participants expressed difficulty in confirming which was the robot in the test.
Dr. Silvera-Tawil, a Mexican-born robotocist from the New South Wales University, conducted the test in recognition of people's very real apprehension and hesitation over interacting with robots.
The test's results displayed an elevation of this apprehension when people are unable to distinguish between human and robot - a profit-turning concept for Hollywood to date. The participants' questionnaire responses indicated anxiety, nervousness and fear when interacting with geminoids.
Dr. Silvera-Tawil will be taking his study further to look into the reduction of anxiety in interactions of humans with android geminoids.
The response to robots is not all negative. There are those who, unable to tell the difference from a real human, expressed attraction to Geminoid F. To them Geminoid F is sexy. Similar reactions to Geminoid F say:
"I wish they had these before I married my ex-wife."
"Is it weird if I think she's cute?"
A few ones commented on Geminoid F's similarity to Humans' Anita of BBC played by actress Gemma Chan.
Geminoids have been successful in replicating the human appearance that a Geminoid F by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University has been cast to play the lead role in a Japanese film entitled Sayonara.
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