Science & Technology

Today's androids aren't realistic enough

By T.K. Randall
November 29, 2016

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Creating robots that can walk, talk and perform complex tasks is one thing, but making them physically indistinguishable from humans is something that won't be happening for a long time.

The term 'uncanny valley' is typically used to describe a humanoid robot that looks 'not quite right' and this is likely down to our brain's ability to distinguish an actual person from a fake one.

In a recent study, researchers at UC Berkeley conducted an experiment to determine how quickly our brains are able to make this determination.68 healthy adult volunteers were shown a quick succession of images of things ranging from inanimate objects to actual people and were then asked to rate how lifelike each of them was.

The results indicated that the brain could tell what was real or not within one quarter of a second.

"This unique visual mechanism allows us to perceive what's really alive and what's simulated in just 250 milliseconds," said lead author Allison Yamanashi Leib.

In other words - it's going to take more than a dodgy rubber face for a robot to fool a human.

Source: Tech Radar

Tags: Android