Did you read our post earlier about the creepy telepresence spermbot and think, “If only it were small enough to hold in my hand and/or orifices and also I’m not completely insane”? Yeah. Nobody thought that, but yet it exists. Uh, thanks?
Hiroshi Ishiguro, the Japanese roboticist who made the aforementioned spermbot and built a replica of himself called Geminoid HI-1, has shrunk down his spermbot nobody asked for into a convenient handheld size. Great. Just great. It mimics the facial expression and body language of a person speaking on webcam, which is far more useful than just Skyping them.
A press release from the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International says, “The mobile phone may feel like the person you are talking to.” Yeah, it may. Or it may feel like you’re holding something from a Lovecraft story. I’ve never had a conversation with a stump-armed albino who’s less than a foot tall and has legs conjoined into a point and thought that was normal. Oh, I’ve done it; don’t get me wrong. But I’m not going to pretend it’s normal. Sorry, Gary, but you’re a weird dude.
[Banner picture via cool new site TheMarySue]