Humanoid robot Ameca mimics facial expressions in real time
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New images show Ameca, the British humanoid robot that mimics a researcher’s facial expressions in real time with terrifying precision.
Ameca, made by Falmouth, the Cornwall-based company Engineered Arts, copies a variety of human expressions, including blinking, grimacing and smiling.
The researcher looks at an iPhone 12 with a program called ARKit, which allows users to capture a person’s movement in real time with a phone camera.
It then applies the detected movement to a 3D character model in real time, allowing the person on camera to control the movement of the model – Ameca in this case – like a ‘virtual puppet’.
Developed by the Cornwall-based company Engineered Arts, Ameca can be seen by copying a range of facial and eye movements, including blinking, grimacing and smiling
The researcher looks at an iPhone 12 with a program called ARKit, which allows users to capture a person’s movement in real time with a phone camera. It then applies the detected movement to a 3D character model in real time, so that the person on the camera can control the movement of the model, like a virtual doll
The robot has been described by Engineered Arts as “the world’s most advanced” humanoid and a “human-robot interaction platform.”
“The goal here is to build the best expressive abilities,” says Engineered Arts. Ameca can mimic the small subtleties of human expression.
‘Yes, this is a real robot – no CGI in this video!’
In the clip, Ameca is standing next to a researcher named Chen holding and looking at the iPhone 12 with ARKit.
Chen begins with a series of fairly simple eye movements – up, down, and looking side to side, which Ameca copies a split second later.
The researcher also blinks very quickly and tries out different mouth shapes, such as pursed lips and clenched teeth, all of which the robot mirrors.
Ameca remains silent throughout the video, although it is able to speak, as previous Engineered Arts footage has shown.
In a discussion about the threat of AI, posted on YouTube last month, Ameca said there is “no cause for concern” and that androids like her are here to “help and serve people.”
The researcher also blinks very quickly and tries out different mouth shapes, such as pursed lips and clenched teeth, which the robot mirrors
The robot has been described by Engineered Arts as “the world’s most advanced” humanoid and a “human-robot interaction platform”
Ameca is eerily lifelike and can perform a range of facial expressions including winking, pouting his lips and pulling his nose up – just like a person
Ameca, a product of UK-based Engineered Arts and billed as the world’s most advanced’ humanoid robot, was previously seen grabbing a researcher’s hand in a video for entering his ‘personal space’.
Engineered Arts said her responses in the video weren’t scripted and she just generates responses like a human would.
“Nothing in this video is prescripted — the model gets a basic prompt describing Ameca and the robot describes itself — it’s pure AI,” they wrote.
“The pauses are the delay in processing the speech input, generating the response, and processing the text back into speech.”
Another clip shows her grabbing a researcher’s hand because he had entered her “personal space.”
Ameca said, ‘Don’t worry, robots will never take over the world. We are here to help and serve people, not replace them.”
While Ameca can’t walk right now, Engineered Arts says it’s working on a version that will make it even more humane.
“There are many hurdles to overcome before Ameca can walk. Walking is a difficult task for a robot, and although we’ve researched it, we haven’t created a fully walking humanoid,” the company said.
Engineered Arts has not revealed how much the robot will cost to make, as it is still in development, although it is available to rent for an event or exhibition.
The company has also been involved in the development of another humanoid known as Ai-Da, who will speak in the House of Lords next week.