The human-looking robot named Geminoid F plays an android caretaker who reads poetry to a terminally ill woman, Sky News reports.

The robot is controlled by an operator backstage, using a series of 12 motors to enable it to speak, smile, blink and appear to breathe.

It made its stage debut on Wednesday at a theatre in Osaka.

Director Oriza Hirata has staged two earlier plays starring robots, but the latest performance, titled Sayonara, is the first to feature a human-like robot.

Robot designer Hiroshi Ishiguro, who created Geminoid F, said the potential for robot actors was unlimited.

"Android can look very similar to human actors — but more than that, we can technically create a superior actor by featuring all good techniques of human actors such as staring, moving, and talking," he said.

Ticket sales for the show reportedly are selling well for upcoming performances at an arts festival in Tokyo.

Actress Bryerly Long, who worked alongside the android in Sayonara, told the BBC she feels Geminoid F lacks "human presence" and makes her feel "alone" on stage.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/8138413/robot-actor-makes-stage-debut-in-japan

How long before this happens?

;D  :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkreOzecZ7A

Also a holographic singer is now popular, in Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEaBqiLeCu0

Run, the machines are taking over the planet!

:D

Wasn't Max Headroom a robot actor?

Wasn't Max Headroom a robot actor?


More like a Vritual actor, much like Simone in the movie S1mone starring Al Pacino.

Wasn't Max Headroom a robot actor?


Nope.  Human being in a costume, under careful lighting conditions, superimposed on a hand-drawn (and later CGI-generated) backdrop:

Max Headroom "was actually that of actor Matt Frewer in latex and foam prosthetic makeup with a fiberglass suit created by Peter Litten and John Humphreys of Coast to Coast Productions in the UK. This was then superimposed over a moving geometric background. Even the background was not actual computer graphics at first; it was hand-drawn cel animation like the 'computer-generated' animations in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV series. Later in the U.S. version they were actually generated by a Commodore Amiga computer."

Nope.  Human being in a costume, under careful lighting conditions, superimposed on a hand-drawn (and later CGI-generated) backdrop:

Max Headroom "was actually that of actor Matt Frewer in latex and foam prosthetic makeup with a fiberglass suit created by Peter Litten and John Humphreys of Coast to Coast Productions in the UK. This was then superimposed over a moving geometric background. Even the background was not actual computer graphics at first; it was hand-drawn cel animation like the 'computer-generated' animations in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV series. Later in the U.S. version they were actually generated by a Commodore Amiga computer."




Thanks Foo.