Smiling robot face is made from living human skin cells

A smiling face made from living human skin could one day be attached to a humanoid robot, allowing machines to emote and communicate in a more life-like way, say researchers. Its wrinkles could also prove useful for the cosmetics industry.

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[memofromessex]

"...scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should, " territory.

[LordShenanigan]

Save that technology for medical use and reconstructive surgery. Just make robot faces out of silicone. It's cheap and won't freak people out.

[Internatube]

As a scientist and as a roboticist, this feels like the kind of project a grad student would make up as a "Wouldn't it be horrifying if this existed" and then a bunch of his mentors and peers laughed about, but then they decided to throw actual money and development towards.

[Skeptical_Numbat]

There's the Uncanny Valley, then there's this Junji Ito-esque abomination...

[PaladinOfNerds]

I’m more interested in the medical applications but I guess these guys just want The Terminator.

[MrConredsX]

This smile is the last thing you see when a soulless robot rips your guts with metallic hand

[soniaclimes]

Something went seriously wrong with scientists.

[wehavecookies]

"Life-like robots with realistic expressions could help robots communicate with people better."
No. no it won't.

[tswan]

"The team put the skin onto a robotic face..."


The TEAM? Aint no way a team of people thought this was ok.

[SerbianSabre]

"Is your name Sarah Connor" -said the terminator while smiling with a sick fleshy grin

[UkiMalefu]

Kyle Reese: [in a stolen car, while being chased by the police and the terminator] All right, listen. The Terminator's an infiltration unit: part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a hyperalloy combat chassis, microprocessor-controlled. Fully armored; very tough. But outside, it's living human tissue: flesh, skin, hair, blood - grown for the cyborgs.

[lightning_mcqueen_official-lj]

i have no mouth and i must scream taught us nothing huh

[glcol]

(Deep breath) Screaming until I pass out, followed by nightmares. Thanks for this thing now being in my brain...

[Bwethhh]

I read a tweet from video game developer David Szymanski which basically said “the existence of the uncanny valley implies that at some point there was an evolutionary reason to be afraid of something that looked human but wasn’t” and now I see this video

[KairuHakubi]

Did a robot design this project? It feels like a classic blunder of context
"Huh, they find these robot faces creepy, they're not convincingly human" "Hey, what if we used human cells? Surely humans will recognize the cellular makeup, and enjoy the face as a fellow human face!"

Aww sweet, manmade horrors beyond my comprehension

[AldoSmit]

Oh, brilliant! Because nothing says "cutting-edge technology" quite like a robot wearing a fleshy skin mask that looks like it just escaped from a low-budget horror flick. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be greeted by a clammy, blinking synthetic face every morning? Just imagine the joy of explaining to your kids that, no, it's not a monster under the bed—it’s just Dad’s new colleague. Truly, the future we all dreamed of! Bravo, scientists. Just bravo. And to top it all off, it’s disgustingly lifelike.

[davidsaunders]

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

[paytonpryor]

This is deeply disturbing and concerning.

[gensoustudio]

I feel like something more durable and not requiring food or being vulnerable to necrosis would be better for synthetics.