The Museum of the Future in Dubai have just hired their first robotic staff member in the form of Ameca, a humanoid robot that is ready to mingle with visitors, answer their questions and maybe even crack a joke here and there as well.
Anyone looking to have a chat with Ameca can find it within the museum’s Tomorrow Today exhibition.
Showcasing the latest innovations that could change the world, the Tomorrow Today exhibit explores how designers, researchers, and corporations are responding today to the world’s most urgent challenges.
Manufactured by Engineered Arts, Ameca features “smooth, lifelike motion and advanced facial expression capabilities” and is capable of making conversation with anybody.
Using it’s sensors, it can track movement in the entire room and has face recognition technology. This allows it to scan a visitor and interpret whether they’re happy, sad or laughing for example, so it can then respond accurately.
A comedic robot
If visitors enter it’s personal space, it will respond accordingly so if you feel like poking and prodding, it may respond by saying “excuse me!” or “do you mind?” just like real person would.
You don’t go up to random strangers and poke them do you?
Ameca will even wave back at visitors who greet it or are saying goodbye. Below are just some example actions of what the robot is capable of, such as pointing and yawning.
“Designed specifically as a platform for development into future robotics technologies, Ameca is the perfect humanoid robot platform for human-robot interaction.” said the manufacturer on its website.
Future development
Both of Ameca’s hardware and software has been designed to be continually upgraded and improved upon as advancements are made in technology. In addition, all modules can run independently. This means that a full robot isn’t needed to function.
“The modular architecture allows for future upgrades, both physically and software to enhance Ameca’s abilities, all without having to fork out for an entire new robot.” said Engineered Arts.
Ameca is also available for purchase or event rental so if you just felt like purchasing the head, you could place it by your front door to greet friends and family who come to visit. Then again, a talking head may be a bit scary to some.