Super Realistic Disney-Made Robot Gaze, Makes Goosebumps

Disney builds a robot that looks like a human (Disney Research Screenshot)

JAKARTA - Disney Research creates a new robot. This robot is claimed to be able to move its own facial expressions like humans, especially blinking and moving the head subtly.

This robot has a sensor pinned to its chest covered in a shirt. This sensor allows the robot to turn around and face someone who is standing directly in front of it.

The pair of eyes can also move smoothly and can make eye contact like that of humans. The chest can also move when inhaling and exhaling.

The robot was developed by engineers in Disney's research division, Walt Disney Imagineering, along with a number of robot researchers from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Campaign and the California Institute of Technology.

In general, humanoid robots focus their eyes on the human face and continue to stare at it. That's not how humans interact with each other. Disney's research team describes in its research report "Interactive and Realistic Robot Gaze":

"The gaze is proven to be the main key to social life, which shapes the perceptions of interacting colleagues. For example, people who frequently make eye contact with us are thought to have something in common with us, as well as being smarter, more conscientious, sincere and trustworthy. Furthermore, the gaze reveals a complex social and emotional state.

Given the importance of gaze in social interactions and its ability to communicate atmosphere and perceptions. It seems clear that the gaze can be a significant functioning tool for an interactive robot character. Therefore, the aim of this research is to develop a system that can mimic the human gaze. "

It's not hard to imagine how Disney would use this technology, say, for animatronic characters in its theme parks. Disney's research division has been working on more vivid robots for some time; in 2018 they introduced a robot that can perform backflips in the air.

In order to truly look human, they only needed to do one thing, which was to add skin to the surface of the robot.

It is one thing to coat the outside with skin, but if the robot is allowed to appear as it is, it is likely that the appearance of the robot will frighten Disneyland visitors, as reported by TheVerge.

Of course, the presence of robots that have human-like abilities will surprise many people. But actually this can be predicted along with the emergence of AI technology or artificial intelligence and Machine Learning.