This robot right here is the Geminoid DK, an android clone of Professor Henrik Scharfe of Denmark’s Aalborg University. It was built in conjunction with robot manufacturer Kokoro (who built Raptor Santa Claus) and famed roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro of the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International in Nara, Japan.
The professors have yet to elaborate why they built a robotic clone of Professor Scharfe, but then again, does one really need a reason to build an android facsimile of oneself? According to Scharfe’s wife, they should send his remote-controlled doppelganger “to conferences and stuff” in lieu of the real thing.
Scharfe is the director of the Center for Computer-mediated Epistemology at Aalborg, so chances are he’s trying to A.) get into his twin’s mechanical head; or B.) get out of teaching Robo-Epistemology 101.
Via Automaton and Geminoid DK.
