Can We Transmit Emotions Through Telepresence Robots?
Remotely projecting your presence has never looked so weird…
Many of the ideas surrounding the function and value of robots have to do with telepresence–the ability to project a personal likeness to a faraway location. Telenoid is designed specifically around that premise. Developed by Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), the same people who brought us Geminoid, Telenoid is essentially a complex version of the iPhone’s FaceTime. On top of voice broadcast, the Telenoid mimics the facial and upper-body movement of its user (It is capable of eye movement; head tilting; opening its mouth; and limb movement) through a software system called FaceAPI.
Below is a video of the Telenoid in action. You can see it going through all the motions.