Humanoid robots surprise and frighten at the Las Vegas tech show

A child-sized robot doll squirmed and screamed to stunned audiences at the Las Vegas tech show Wednesday, where the line between exciting and disturbing is sometimes blurred.

“The eyes are really scary,” exclaimed Marcelo Humerez, an exhibitor who came from Peru and found Pedia-Roid (contraction of pediatric and android) in the room: a robbery destined for medical training.

Further afield, a humanoid robot named Ameca received a less fearful reception from curious onlookers who watched it speak and display a human-like range of motion.

“We conceived Ameca so that it gets as close as possible to the human in its movements,” he declared to the AFP Morgan Roe of UK-based Engineered Arts.

Beside him was the robot whose gray face moved and blinked as the human spoke.

“Humans are so complex that making a robot exactly similar to a human is almost impossible,” he added.

“But if we do, then it won’t scare him, because he’ll just assume he’s human.”

Before reaching that level of realism, the creation maintains certain aspects that reveal that it is not a living creature, but rather is in a space called “the valley of the strange.”

“He doesn’t move exactly like a human, he doesn’t express himself or show his emotions, or he talks to a human. It is the valley of the strange, it is the part that is scary ”, explained Roe.

In the case of the Pedia-Roid robot, the terrifying appearance is voluntary, said Yusuke Ishii of the Japanese company tmsuk that exposed the doll.

“We want to create a realistic setting, it is the reason why we add certain terrifying noises, so that it behaves like a child,” he stressed.

According to the company’s brochure, the robot can “very realistically simulate the contorting movements of a child refusing treatment.” (I)