Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro was responsible for the first Geminoids—super realistic androids capable of reproducing facial tics and other subtle mannerisms—but a team of researchers at Aalborg University in Denmark has fired back with their own fair-skinned take on the creepily realistic robot: the Geminoid DK.
DK already looks startlingly familiar, like he’s the cool guy who teachers your English composition class at Uncanny Valley University, but he’s still very much a work in progress. Currently, he’s programmed to breathe and make his own involuntary muscular reactions, though both actions currently seem a bit too pronounced from these first videos. Nevertheless, he’s considerably cheaper than Ishiguro’s Geminoids, meaning that he’ll be more widely available to robotics researchers. Oh and if you’re late to class he punishes you with laser beams that shoot out of his eyes. [Crunch Gear]
