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342 Humanoid Robots, New Developments Osuka, K.; Sugimoto Y. & Sugie T. (2004). Stabilization of Semi-Passive Dynamic Walking based on Delayed Feedback Contr ol, Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol.22,No.1, pp.130-139 (in Japanese)Asano, F.; Luo, Z.-W. & Yamakita, M. (2004). Gait Generation and Control for Biped Robots Based on Passive Dynamic Walking, Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol.22, No.1, pp.130-139Imadu, A. & Ono, K. (1998). Optimum Tr ajector y Planning Method for a System that Includes Passive Joints (1st Report, Proposal of a Function Approximation Method), Transact ions of t he Japan Societ y of Mechanical Engineers, Ser ies C, Vol.64, No.618, pp.136-142 (in Japanese)Ono, K. & Liu, R. (2001). An Optimal Walking Trajectory of Biped Mechanism (1st Report, Optimal Tr ajector y Planning Method and Gait Solutions Under Full-Actuated Condition),Transactions of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, Series C, Vol.67,No.660, pp.207-214 (in Japanese)Liu, R & Ono, K. (2001). An Optimal Trajectory of Biped Walking Mechanism (2nd Report, Effect of Unde-Actuated Condition, No Knee Collision and St ide Length), Transact ions of t he Japan Societ y of Mechanical Engineers, Ser ies C, Vol.67, No.661, pp.141-148 (in Japanese)Ono, K. & Liu, R. (2002). Optimal Biped Walking Locomotion Solved by Trajectory Planning Method, Tr ansactions of the ASME, Journal of Dynamic Syst ems, Measurement andControl, Vol.124, pp.554-565Peng, C. & Ono K. (2003). Numerical Analysis of Energy-Efficient Walking Gait with Flexed Knee for a Four-DOF Planar Biped Model, JSME Int ernat ional Journal, Ser ies C, Vol.46, No.4, pp.1346-1355Hase T. & Huang, Q. (2005). Optimal Trajectory Planning Method for Biped Walking Robot based on Inequality State Constraint, Proceedings. of 36th International Symposium onRobotics, Biomechanical Robots, CD-ROM, WE413, Tokyo, JapanHase, T.; Huang, Q. & Ono, K. (2006). An Optimal Walking Trajectory of Biped Mechanism (3rd Report, Analysis of Upper Body Mass Model under Inequality State Constraintand Expe imental Ve ification), Transac ions of he Japan Socie y of Mechanical Engineers, Series C, Vol.72, No.721, pp.2845-2852 (in Japanese)Huang, Q.. & Hase, T. (2006). Energy-Efficient Trajectory Planning for Biped walking Robot, Proceedings. of t he 2006 IEEE Int ernat ional Conference on Robot ics and Biomimet ics,pp.648-653, Kunming, China20 Geminoid: Teleoperated Android of an ExistingPersonShuichi Nishio*, Hiroshi Ishiguro*̐, Norihiro Hagita**ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories̐Department of Adaptive Machine Systems, Osaka UniversityJapan1.Intro ductio nWhy are people attracted to humanoid robots and androids? The answer is simple: because human beings ar e attuned to under stand or inter pr et human expr essions and behavior s, especially those that exist in their surroundings. As they grow, infants, who are supposedly born with the ability to discriminate various types of stimuli, gradually adapt and fine-tune their interpretations of detailed social clues from other voices, languages, facial expressions, or behaviors (Pascalis et al., 2002). Perhaps due to this functionality of nature and nurture, people have a strong tendency to anthropomorphize nearly everything they encounter. This is also tr ue for computer s or r obots. In other wor ds, when we see PCs or r obots, some automatic process starts running inside us that tries to interpret them as human. The media equation theor y (Reeves & Nass, 1996) fir st explicitly ar ticulated this tendency within us. Since then, r esear cher s have been pur suing the key element to make people feel mor e comfor table with computer s or cr eating an easier and mor e intuitive inter face to var ious information devices. This pursuit has also begun spreading in the field of robotics. Recently, r esear cher’s inter ests in r obotics ar e shifting fr om tr aditional studies on navigation and manipulation to human-r obot inter action. A number of r esear ches have investigated how people respond to robot behaviors and how robots should behave so that people can easily understand them (Fong et al., 2003; Breazeal, 2004; Kanda et al., 2004). Many insights from developmental or cognitive psychologies have been implemented and examined to see how they affect the human r esponse or whether they help r obots pr oduce smooth and natur al communication with humans.However, human-robot interaction studies have been neglecting one issue: the "appearance versus behavior problem." We empirically know that appearance, one of the most significant elements in communication, is a crucial factor in the evaluation of interaction (See Figure 1). The inter active r obots developed so far had ver y mechanical outcomes that do appear as “robots.” Researchers tried to make such interactive robots “humanoid” by equipping them with heads, eyes, or hands so that their appearance more closely resembled human beings and to enable them to make such analogous human movements or gestur es as star ing, pointing, and so on. Functionality was consider ed the pr imar y concer n in impr oving communication with humans. In this manner, many studies have compar ed r obots with different behaviors. Thus far, scant attention has been paid to robot appearances. Although344 Humanoid Robots, New Developmentsthere are many empirical discussions on such very simple static robots as dolls, the design ofa robot’s appearance, particularly to increase its human likeness, has always been the role of industr ial designer s; it has seldom been a field of study. This is a ser ious pr oblem for developing and evaluating inter active r obots. Recent neur oimaging studies show that cer tain br ain activation does not occur when the obser ved actions ar e per for med by non-human agents (Per ani et al., 2001; Han et al., 2005). Appear ance and behavior ar e tightly coupled, and concern is high that evaluation results might be affected by appearance.Fig. 1. Three categories of humanlike robots: humanoid robot Robovie II (left: developed by ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Labor ator ies), andr oid Repliee Q2 (middle: developed by Osaka Univer sity and Kokor o cor por ation), geminoid HI-1 and its human source (right: developed by ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories).In this chapter , we intr oduce android science, a cr oss-inter disciplinar y r esear ch fr amewor k that combines two approaches, one in robotics for constructing very humanlike robots and androids, and another in cognitive science that uses androids to explore human nature. Here andr oids ser ve as a platfor m to dir ectly exchange insights fr om the two domains. To proceed with this new framework, several androids have been developed so far, and many r esear ches have been done. At that time, however , we encounter ed ser ious issues that spar ked the development of a new categor y of r obot called geminoid . Its concept and the development of the fir st pr ototype ar e descr ibed. Pr eliminar y findings to date and futur e directions with geminoids are also discussed.2. Android ScienceCurrent robotics research uses various findings from the field of cognitive science, especially in the human-r obot inte r action a r ea, t r ying to adopt findings f r om human-human inter actions with r obots to make r obots that people can easily communicate with. At the same time, cognitive science researchers have also begun to utilize robots. As research fields extend to more complex, higher-level human functions such as seeking the neural basis of social skills (Blakemor e, 2004), expectations will r ise for r obots to function as easily cont rolled appa r atuses with communicative ability. Howeve , the cont ibution f omrobotics to cognitive science has not been adequate because the appearance and behavior ofGeminoid: Teleoperated Android of an Existing Person 345current robots cannot be separately handled. Since traditional robots look quite mechanical and very different from human beings, the effect of their appearance may be too strong to ignore. As a result, researchers cannot clarify whether a specific finding reflects the robot’s appearance, its movement, or a combination of both.We expect to solve this problem using an android whose appearance and behavior closely resembles humans. The same thing is also an issue in robotics research, since it is difficult to clear ly distinguish whether the cues per tain solely to r obot behavior s. An objective, quantitative means of measuring the effect of appearance is required.Andr oids ar e r obots whose behavior and appear ance ar e highly anthr opomor phized. Developing andr oids r equir es contr ibutions fr om both r obotics and cognitive science. To ealize a mo e humanlike and oid, knowledge f om human sciences is also necessar y. At the same time, cognitive science r esear cher s can exploit andr oids for ver ifying hypotheses in under standing human natur e. This new, bi-dir ectional, cr oss-inter disciplinar y r esear ch fr amewor k is called android science (Ishigur o, 2005). Under this f r amewo r k, and r oids enable us to di r ectly sha re knowledge between the development of androids in engineering and the understanding of humans in cognitive science (Figure 2). Fig. 2. Bi-directional feedback in Android Science.The major r obotics issue in constr ucting andr oids is the development of humanlike appea ance, movements, and pe ception functions. On the othe hand, one issue in cognitive science is “conscious and unconscious recognition.” The goal of android science is to r ealize a humanlike r obot and to find the essential factor s for r epr esenting human likeness. How can we define human likeness? Further, how do we perceive human likeness? It is common knowledge that humans have conscious and unconscious recognition. When we observe objects, various modules are activated in our brain. Each of them matches the input sensory data with human models, and then they affect reactions. A typical example is that even if we recognize a robot as an android, we react to it as a human. This issue is fundamental both for engineer ing and scientific appr oaches. It will be an evaluation cr iter ion in andr oid development and will pr ovide cues for under standing the human brain’s mechanism of recognition.So far , sever al andr oids have been developed. Repliee Q2, the latest andr oid (Ishigur o, 2005), is shown in the middle of Figure 1. Forty-two pneumatic actuators are embedded in the android’s upper torso, allowing it to move smoothly and quietly. Tactile sensors, which ar e also embedded under its skin, ar e connected to sensor s in its envir onment, such as omnidirectional cameras, microphone arrays, and floor sensors. Using these sensory inputs, RoboticsSensor technology Mechanical eng. Control sys. A.I.Cognitive sci. PsychologyNeuro sci. Analysis andunderstanding ofhumans Development ofmechanical humans Hypothesis andVerification346 Humanoid Robots, New Developments the autonomous pr ogr am installed in the andr oid can make smooth, natur al inter actions with people near it.Even though these androids enabled us to conduct a variety of cognitive experiments, they ar e still quite limited. The bottleneck in inter action with human is its lack of ability to perform long-term conversation. Unfortunately, since current AI technology for developing humanlike brains is limited, we cannot expect humanlike conversation with robots. When meeting humanoid r obots, people usually expect humanlike conver sation with them. However, the technology greatly lags behind this expectation. AI progress takes time, and such AI that can make humanlike conversation is our final goal in robotics. To arrive at this final goal, we need to use cur r ently available technologies and under stand deeply what a human is. Ou solution fo this p oblem is to integ ate and oid and teleope ation technologies.3. GeminoidFig. 3. Geminoid HI-1 (right).We have developed Geminoid, a new category of robot, to overcome the bottleneck issue. We coined “geminoid” fr om the Latin “geminus,” meaning “twin” or “double,” and added “oides,” which indicates “similarity” or being a twin. As the name suggests, a geminoid is a robot that will work as a duplicate of an existing person. It appears and behaves as a person and is connected to the per son by a computer networ k. Geminoids extend the applicable field of android science. Androids are designed for studying human nature in general. With geminoids, we can study such per sonal aspects as pr esence or per sonality tr aits, tr acing their origins and implemention into robots. Figure 3 shows the robotic part of HI-1, the first geminoid prototype. Geminoids have the following capabilities:Appearance and behavior highly similar to an existing personThe appearance of a geminoid is based on an existing person and does not depend on the imagination of designers. Its movements can be made or evaluated simply by referring to the or iginal per son. The existence of a r eal per son analogous to the r obot enables easy compar ison studies. Mor eover, if a r esear cher is used as the or iginal, we can expect thatGeminoid: Teleoperated Android of an Existing Person 347 individual to offer meaningful insights into the experiments, which are especially important at the ver y fir st stage of a new field of study when beginning fr om established r esear ch methodologies.Teleoperation (remote control)Since geminoids are equipped with teleoperation functionality, they are not only driven by an autonomous pr ogr am. By intr oducing manual contr ol, the limitations in cur r ent AI technologies can be avoided, enabling long-ter m, intelligent conver sational human-r obot interaction experiments. This feature also enables various studies on human characteristics by separ ating “body” and “mind.” In geminoids, the oper ator (mind) can be easily exchanged, while the r obot (body) r emains the same. Also, the str ength of connection, or what kind of infor mation is tr ansmitted between the body and mind, can be easilyreconfigured. This is especially important when taking a top-down approach that adds/deletes elements fr om a per son to discover the “cr itical” elements that compr ise human characteristics. Before geminoids, this was impossible.3.1 System overviewThe current geminoid prototype, HI-1, consists of roughly three elements: a robot, a central controlling server (geminoid server), and a teleoperation interface (Figure 4).Fig. 4. Overview of geminoid system.A robot that resembles a living personThe robotic element has essentially identical structure as previous androids (Ishiguro, 2005). However, efforts concentrated on making a robot that appears—not just to resemble a living person—to be a copy of the original person. Silicone skin was molded by a cast taken from the original person; shape adjustments and skin textures were painted manually based on MRI scans and photographs. Fifty pneumatic actuators drive the robot to generate smooth and quiet movements, which are important attributes when interacting with humans. The allocations of actuator s wer e decided so that the r esulting r obot can effectively show the necessar y movements for human inter action and simultaneously expr ess the or iginal person’s personality traits. Among the 50 actuators, 13 are embedded in the face, 15 in the torso, and the remaining 22 move the arms and legs. The softness of the silicone skin and the compliant natur e of the pneumatic actuator s also pr ovide safety while inter acting with humans. Since this prototype was aimed for interaction experiments, it lacks the capability to walk ar ound; it always r emains seated. Figur e 1 shows the r esulting r obot (r ight) alongside the original person, Dr. Ishiguro (author).Teleoperationinterface The Internet server348 Humanoid Robots, New DevelopmentsTeleoperation interfaceFigur e 5 shows the teleoper ation inter face pr ototype. Two monitor s show the contr olled r obot and its sur r oundings, and micr ophones and a headphone ar e used to captur e and tr ansmit utter ances. The captur ed sounds ar e encoded and tr ansmitted to the geminoid server by IP links from the interface to the robot and vice versa. The operator’s lip corner positions are measured by an infrared motion capturing system in real time, converted to motion commands, and sent to the geminoid ser ver by the networ k. This enables the operator to implicitly generate suitable lip movement on the robot while speaking. However, compared to the large number of human facial muscles used for speech, the current robot only has a limited number of actuator s on its face. Also, r esponse speed is much slower , par tially due to the natur e of the pneumatic actuator s. Thus, simple tr ansmission and playback of the operator’s lip movement would not result in sufficient, natural robot motion. To over come this issue, measur ed lip movements ar e cur r ently tr ansfor med into contr ol commands using heuristics obtained through observation of the original person’s actual lipmovement.Fig. 5. Teleoperation interface.The oper ator can also explicitly send commands for contr olling r obot behavior s using a simple GUI interface. Several selected movements, such as nodding, opposing, or staring in a certain direction can be specified by a single mouse click. This relatively simple interface was pr epar ed because the r obot has 50 degr ees of fr eedom, which makes it one of the wor ld’s most complex r obots, and is basically impossible to manipulate manually in r eal time. A simple, intuitive inter face is necessar y so that the oper ator can concentr ate on inter action and not on r obot manipulation. Despite its simplicity, by cooper ating with the geminoid server, this interface enables the operator to generate natural humanlike motions in the robot.Geminoid serverThe geminoid ser ver r eceives r obot contr ol commands and sound data fr om the r emote cont r olling inte r face, adjusts and me r ges inputs, and sends and r eceives p rimitive contr olling commands between the r obot har dwar e. Figur e 6 shows the data flow in the geminoid system. The geminoid server also maintains the state of human-robot interaction and gener ates autonomous or unconscious movements for the r obot. As descr ibed above, as the r obot’s featur es become mor e humanlike, its behaviorshould also become suitablyGeminoid: Teleoperated Android of an Existing Person 349 sophisticated to retain a “natural” look (Minato et al., 2006). One thing that can be seen in every human being, and that most robots lack, are the slight body movements caused by an autonomous system, such as breathing or blinking. To increase the robot’s naturalness, the geminoid server emulates the human autonomous system and automatically generates these micr o-movements, depending on the state of inter action each time. When the r obot is “speaking,” it shows differ ent micr o-movements than when “listening” to other s. Such automatic r obot motions, gener ated without oper ator’s explicit or der s, ar e mer ged and adjusted with conscious oper ation commands fr om the teleoper ation inter face (Figur e 6). Alongside, the geminoid ser ver gives the tr ansmitted sounds specific delay, taking into account the transmission delay/jitter and the start-up delay of the pneumatic actuators. This adjustment serves synchronizing lip movements and speech, thus enhancing the naturalness of geminoid movement.Fig. 6. Data flow in the geminoid system.3.2 Experiences with the geminoid prototypeThe fir st geminoid pr ototype, HI-1, was completed and pr ess-r eleased in July 2006. Since then, numer ous oper ations have been held, including inter actions with lab member s and exper iment subjects. Also, geminoid was demonstr ated to a number of visitor s and r epor ter s. Dur ing these oper ations, we encounter ed sever al inter esting phenomena. Her e are some discourses made by the geminoid operator:x When I (Dr. Ishiguro, the origin of the geminoid prototype) first saw HI-1 sitting still, it was like looking in a mirror. However, when it began moving, it looked likesomebody else, and I couldn’t r ecognize it as myself. This was str ange, since wecopied my movements to HI-1, and other s who know me well say the r obot accur ately shows my char acter istics. This means that we ar e not objectively recognizing our unconscious movements ourselves.x While oper ating HI-1 with the oper ation inter face, I find myself unconsciously adapting my movements to the geminoid movements. The cur ent geminoid cannot move as freely as I can. I felt that, not just the geminoid but my own body isrestricted to the movements that HI-1 can make.350 Humanoid Robots, New DevelopmentsxIn less than 5 minutes both the visitor s and I can quickly adapt to conver sation through the geminoid. The visitors recognize and accept the geminoid as me whiletalking to each other.x When a visitor pokes HI-1, especially ar ound its face, I get a str ong feeling ofbeing poked myself. This is strange, as the system currently provides no tactilefeedback. Just by watching the monitors and interacting with visitors, I get this feeling.We also asked the visitors how they felt when interacting through the geminoid. Most said that when they saw HI-1 for the very first time, they thought that somebody (or Dr. Ishiguro, if familiar with him) was waiting there. After taking a closer look, they soon realized that HI-1 was a r obot and began to have some weir d and ner vous feelings. But shor tly after having a conver sation thr ough the geminoid, they found themselves concentr ating on the inte action, and soon the st ange feelings vanished. Most of the visito s we e non-researchers unfamiliar with robots of any kind.Does this mean that the geminoid has over come the “uncanny valley”? Befor e talking through the geminoid, the initial response of the visitors seemingly resembles the reactions seen with previous androids: even though at the very first moment they could not recognize the andr oids as ar tificial, they never theless soon become ner vous while being with the androids. Are intelligence or long-term interaction crucial factors in overcoming the valley and arriving at an area of natural humanness?We certainly need objective means to measure how people feel about geminoids and other types of robots. In a previous android study, Minato et al. found that gaze fixation revealed cr iter ia about the natur alness of r obots (Minato et al., 2006). Recent studies have shown different human responses and reactions to natural or artificial stimuli of the same nature. Per ani et al. showed that differ ent br ain r egions ar e activated while watching human or computer gr aphic ar ms movements (Per ani et al., 2001). Kilner et al. showed that body movement entrainment occurs when watching human motions, but not with robot motions (Kilner et al., 2003). By examining these findings with geminoids, we may be able to find some concr ete measur ements of human likeliness and appr oach the “appear ance ver sus behavior” issue.Perhaps HI-1 was recognized as a sort of communication device, similar to a telephone or a TV-phone. Recent studies have suggested a distinction in the b r ain p r ocess that discr iminates between people appear ing in videos and existing per sons appear ing live (Kuhl et al., 2003). While attending TV conferences or talking by cellular phones, however, we often experience the feeling that something is missing from a face-to-face meeting. What is missing here? Is there an objective means to measure and capture this element? Can we ever implement this on robots? 4. Summary and further issuesIn developing the geminoid, our purpose is to study Sonzai-Kan , or human presence, by extending the framework of android science. The scientific aspect must answer questions about how humans r ecognize human existence/presence. The technological aspect must r ealize a teleoper ated andr oid that wor ks on behalf of the per son r emotely accessing it. This will be one of the practical networked robots realized by integrating robots with the Internet.The following are our current challenges:Geminoid: Teleoperated Android of an Existing Person 351 Teleoperation technologies for complex humanlike robotsMethods must be studied to teleoper ate the geminoid to convey existence/pr esence, which is much mor e complex than tr aditional teleoper ation for mobile and industr ial robots. We are studying a method to autonomously control an android by transferring motions of the ope ato measu ed by a motion captu ing system. We a e also developing methods to autonomously control eye-gaze and humanlike small and large movements.Synchronization between speech utterances sent by the teleoperation system and body movementsThe most impor tant technology for the teleoper ation system is synchr onization between speech utter ances and lip movements. We ar e investigating how to pr oduce natur al behaviors during speech utterances. This problem is extended to other modalities, such ashead and ar m movements. Further, we are studying the effects on non-verbalcommunication by investigating not only synchronization of speech and lip movements but also facial expressions, head, and even whole body movements.Psychological test for human existence/presenceWe are studying the effect of transmitting Sonzai-Kan from remote places, such as meeting par ticipation instead of the per son himself. Mor eover, we ar e inter ested in studying existence/presence through cognitive and psychological experiments. For example, we are studying whether the andr oid can r epr esent the author ity of the per son himself by comparing the person and the android.ApplicationAlthough being developed as research apparatus, the nature of geminoids can allow us to extend the use of r obots in the r eal wor ld. The teleoper ated, semi-autonomous facility of geminoids allows them to be used as substitutes for clerks, for example, that can be contr olled by human oper ator s only when non-typical r esponses ar e r equir ed. Since in most cases an autonomous AI response will be sufficient, a few operators will be able to control hundreds of geminoids. Also because their appearance and behavior closely resembles humans, in the next age geminoids should be the ultimate interface device.5. AcknowledgementThis work was supported in part by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan.6. ReferencesBlakemor e, S. J. & Fr ith, U. (2004). 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