World’s 1st actor-performer humanoid to attend IIT fest

You can meet the world’s first actor-performer humanoid, RoboThespian, at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) campus in Powai next month.

You can meet the world’s first actor-performer humanoid, RoboThespian, at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) campus in Powai next month.

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In a three-day visit to the city, RoboThespian will be a part of Techfest, IIT-B’s annual science and technology festival, scheduled to be held between January 3 and 5, 2020.

This will be RoboThespian’s first visit to India, during which, it will exhibit this year’s Techfest theme “DaVincian Spectacle: A Fusion of Art and Science”.

Techfest’s organising committee is hopeful that the humanoid will enthral the visitors of all ages.

“RoboThespian’s elegant movements, extraordinary body language and emotion-conveying skills make him the perfect talking robot,” said the organising committee in an official statement.

Developed by the United-Kingdom-based technology company Engineered Arts, an acting humanoid is designed for human interaction in a public environment.

The eyes of the humanoid consist Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) that can express emotions and feelings to match the words he speaks. The robot is capable of making movements that are similar to humans, with some movements handled by air muscles and others by servo motors. The robot can sing, dance and perform on stage and mimic the movements of any audience member, using a motion capture software. RoboThespian can also recognise faces and track people in a crowd.

Additionally, the robot can guess a person’s age, gender and facial expressions and speak more than 30 languages in 70 voices.

RoboThespian can also integrate video projection, lighting, multi-channel sound, for a unique, futuristic theatre experience.