Japanese roboticist prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka university, will present his newest project a geminoid named “Telenoid R1”.
The term Telenoid is a new term coined from a prefix Tele-, as Telephone and Teleoperation, and the Latin postfix -oides which indicates similarity, as Humanoid. Using Telenoids, people will investigate the essential elements for representing and transferring humanlike presence. In practical usage, Ishiguro expects Telenoid to be used as a new communication media.
The unique appearance may be eery when we first see it. However, once we communicate with others by using the telenoid, we can adapt to it. If a friend speaks from the telenoid, we can imagine the friend’s face on the telenoid’s face. If we embrace it, we have the feeling, that we embrace the friend.
Ishiguro exhibited a “geminoid” during the Ars Electronica Festival 2009 as a featured artist. The geminoid was a tele-operated android modeled after his creator. Once the operator talked with visitors by using the geminoid, both the operator and visitors could adapt to the android body. The operator recognized the android body as his own body and the visitors recognize it as the operator.
