Japan has a new stage star, Humanoid robot Geminoid F whom has appeared on stage alongside a human actress for the first time in a 20-minute play called 'Sayonara,' or 'Goodbye'. The play was directed by Oriza Hirata, a Japanese director, at the Tokyo Art Festival and featured the robot actress alongside a human actress, American Bryerly Long.
Hiroshi Ishiguro, a renowned robot developer of Osaka University and the creator of Geminoid F. He designed the robot to look a quarter Russian with dark hair and brown eyes, was seated throughout the play, with most of her expressions and voice controlled by a human from behind the scenes. Ishiguro says he had created this thespian version by simplifying the usual £1m model. For the play, he modified one to give it only the bare essentials needed to perform the given acting, which cut costs to one-tenth of the usual.
All the android’s movements were carried out with only 12 motors to enable the machine to speak, smile and dumbfound audiences while keeping her eyes blinking and chest moving up and down as if she were actually breathing.
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