Chinese Company Developing Lifelike Robot Head

Doll can mimic complex facial expressions as well as talk and even sing in Chinese.

July 29, 2017 5:00 am

One Chinese robotic company thinks it has finally breached the ‘uncanny valley’ of human-looking robots, avoiding the close-but-still-eerily-fake effect that has plagued most human simulations up till now. DS Doll Robotic Head’s realistic looking product contains a movable mechanical structure coated in a silicone “skin,” reports The Scotsman. The head can be controlled by a smartphone or a PlayStation controller.

The robot can also listen and and answer questions using voice recognition software, similar to that of a smartphone. The companies who collaborated to create the head, Doll Sweet Dolls and EX Doll, are hoping to launch a crowd-funding campaign so they can produce English and Japanese versions.

Paul Lumb, head of Cloud Climax, says the prototype is a “game changer.” It is priced around $6,000.

While the head does not have a rotatable neck, it will fit on all the company’s other doll bodies, which have flexible limbs that allow them to “move as a real person.” Lumb says that a fully autonomous body is still 15 to 20 years down the line.

The head is expected to arrive on shelves at the end of 2018.

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