Female human-like robots are no longer science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction as a literary and cinematic genre has a history of human-like robots, called androids or gynoids (female androids). The movie Blade Runner is a common example of a science fiction movie that included female robots in a dystopian future. Ira Levin's horrorific novel The Stepford Wives takes a look at how using robots for sexual relations can go horribly wrong. Female robots are also quite common in comic books and are not unknown in video games and even in Star Wars movies.

That is the past. That is fiction. But it would seem the future is here today, and it's no longer fiction.

Meet Aiko

Project Aiko is the first functional female android created in Canada. She ... it ... went on display for the first time in 2007 at a hobby show at the Toronto International Exhibition.

Aiko simulates feeling pain and reacting to it. Aiko can also speak about 13,000 different sentences in English or Japanese. Aiko can even solve math problems and recognizes faces individually. However, Aiko can as of yet not walk.

Meet Actroid

The Kokoro Company first unveiled its humanoid robot, Actroid, in 2003 at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo. Since then there have been multiple, new versions of Actroid created with plans to begin selling the Actroids possibly in 2010.

Actroid can react to being touched, and can move slightly, though cannot walk. It has a silicone layering that is supposed to feel very much like human skin. Actroid can also talk and is able to carry on limited conversations.

Meet EveR-1

Scientists at the Korean Institute of Industrial Technology created EveR-1 and first displayed this gynoid at Seoul in 2006. A newer versions of this robot, EveR-2, has since been unveiled with future models in the works.

EveR-1, and EveR-2, is able to simulate the appropriate facial features for a number of human emotions, and has limited speech capabilities. It is able to move its arms and upper body, including the head and lips, though is not yet able to walk. EveR-2 is capable of singing. Both these robots have a silicone jelly skin.

The future

The creation of human-like robots plenty of questions and concerns. Will this alienate humans from one another? Will it be safe? Will it create a lower population? These are just a few of the questions that will likely be raised over the next several years. It is possible situations and problems unthought of will arise.