Jia Jia, the interactive "robot goddess," used facial expressions while chatting with humans during her unveiling last week at the University of Science and Technology of China.
"Hello everyone, I'm Jia Jia. Welcome," the robot said. "Don't come too close to me when you are taking a picture. It will make my face look fat."
Jia Jia's human-like face can roll its eyes and match its lip movements with its speech, which are upgrades from previous interactive robots, robot team director Chen Xiaoping told the
state-run news agency Xinhua.
"Jia Jia's limited motion and stilted speech shouldn't leave anyone in any doubt she's a robot," noted
The Independent. "However, she looks fairly realistic, with a flexible plastic face, long flowing brown hair, and an eye-catching gold dress."
Jia Jia's debut comes on the heels of a humanoid robot that looks like Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson, which was made by Hong Kong product and graphic designer Ricky Ma, noted
Engadget.
"Besides simple movements of its arms and legs, turning its head and bowing, Ma's robot, which has dark blonde hair and liquid eyes, and wears a grey skirt and cropped top, can create detailed facial expressions," noted
Reuters.
Xinhua said the University of Science and Technology robot team will introduce Jia Jia at the 2016 China (Shanghai) International Technology Fair April 21-23. Chen said he hopes to make the robot a wise "robot goddess" with a little more work.
"We hope to develop the robot so it has deep learning abilities," Chen told Xinhua. "We will add facial expression recognition and make it interact more deeply with people."
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