Almost human robots: how to tell them apart form a real person?

Can you imagine being in front of an android and a human and not able to identify which one is real? Mexican researcher David Silvera-Tawil discovered, after conducting a study in Australia, that this caused high anxiety and even fear in people, when exposed to the geminoids robots, named for their similarity to humans.

The research was aided by Michael Garbutt of the University of New South Wales in Australia, it served to determine the behavior of humans to interact with geminoids, which are identical replicas of people and can operate remotely.

Also, another objective was to determine whether the robotics industry would profit from manufacturing androids despite generating uncertainty and anxiety in people or whether it is preferable to continue with the production of mechanical or humanoid robots that do not cause any disturbance to human behavior.

Once the experiment was carried out, people's reactions were evaluated, as well as the responses of specialized questionnaires, which allowed researchers to know that when mixed with geminoids people generate feelings of anxiety, nervousness and even fear, specified Silvera-Tawil.

For the first part of the study a female geminoid (Actroid F) and a person were seated, both wearing the same outfit, then the participant had five seconds to identify which one of the two was a real human.

The next part of the experiment was performed with only two humans sitting side by side, and about 50 percent of the participants said they could not confirm who the robot was and who the human was, explained the Mexican researcher, who currently resides in Australia.

Is important to highlight than an association with Professor Yoshio Matsumoto, from the National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology in Tokyo, was necessary for the research, in order to lend them the female geminoid.

The Mexican researcher said that the investigation is not over and the next step is to study the long-term case and see whether a human being can get used to interacting with androids geminoids and reduce their anxiety level.