Where does the feeling of one’s presence, such as the atmosphere or the authority of a person come from? How can it be captured, revived and transmitted? To tackle this mystery, we have developed a real-person-based android, “geminoid”. A geminoid appears and behaves just like its source person.

Since artificial intelligence technology has still not reached the level of human behavior, robots can only respond in quite a simple manner. This was a major obstacle in conducting research on humanrobot interaction. With the geminoid’s remotecontrol facility, it is possible to avoid this problem and conduct various research into the implementation of high-level human interaction, including the study of human presence.

Research using geminoids takes two approaches: one is the engineering approach, such as the development of effective tele-operation interfaces or the generation of natural, humanoid motion. Another is on cognitive aspects, for the investigation on human presence. Through these two approaches, our goal is to realize an advanced robot that is close to human and, at the same time, give a new inside into the basis of human nature. Hiroshi Ishiguro and Oriza Hirata have been codeveloping a robot-human theater project, which combines theater with Ishiguro’s research development in the cohabitation of humans and robots. The creation process and presentation becomes part of the research data, making the performance a groundbreaking collaboration of science and theater.

Ishiguro and Hirata’s Android-human theater Sayonara is an innovative short play, played by Geminoid F, a humanoid robot developed by the Ishiguro Laboratory in 2010 that looks exactly like the woman it was modeled on, and a human actress. Examining the question: “What do life and death mean to humans and robots?” this piece will alter the audience’s images of robots and humans and present a compelling fusion of theater arts and science.

Links: http://www.irc.atr.jp/Geminoid/index.html

Hiroshi Ishiguro ( JP), born in 1963, is currently group leader of Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratory at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), Japan, as well as a professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University. He is world renowned as the five-times
winner of the international RoboCup competition and has the highest rank in Japan for “Top 100 living geniuses” (Synetics 2007). Oriza Hirata ( JP), born 1962. Playwright, director, artistic director of the Komaba Agora Theater, founder of the Seinendan Theater Company, professor at the Osaka University Center for the Study of Communication Design and special advisor to the cabinet. In 1995 he won the 39th Kishida Kunio Drama Award with Tokyo Note, which has been presented in many important theater festivals such as the 2008 Festival d’automne à Paris. He also received the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award in 2006.