When Pepper the robot was announced, she seemed friendly and cute. She could understand your feelings and give responses to your mood. Pepper was innovative, nothing too “out there”. In a world where we seem apprehensive about robots becoming more anthropomorphic, what are we to think of robotic newscasters that actually look human in addition to acting human? These are androids, robots that closely resemble humans in both appearance and movement. Can you place which ones are robots in the photo? Their names are Kodomoroid and Otonaroid, both of which recently found employment at Japan's prestigious National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. They are designed to appear just like a woman and a child. Kodomoroid, meaning “child android”, works as a news and weather reporter, while Otonaroid, “adult android”, guides the exhibition.

Both androids also possess a sense of humor. When shakily introducing herself as Otonaroid, she excused herself after a quick reboot saying “I am a little bit nervous”. The exhibit is called “Android: What is human?”. Human museum visitors can talk with both female robots, interact with them, and feel that strange feeling of looking them in the eye. The question reaches further than “What is human?”, but “How far do androids have to go to become indistinguishable from humans?”.

Would we ever want that? At what point does it make us uncomfortable? The androids were designed down to the smallest detail. Plaster casts and silicone create the sense of human skin and muscle, and the surface has the texture of human flesh. During the exhibit, the child robot sits behind a desk, parsing existing news with good pronunciation. The adult robot sits in front of the desk, blinking, looking around, and even bowing if needed. As the audience walks by interacting with and even operating the robots, they realize “as these resemblances become even closer, the distinctions between robots and humans could become less and less clear”. That is where the fine line of “What is human?” comes into play.

The two signify a leap towards autonomous human androids. Perhaps, because their movements and appearance are human-like, it intensifies the creepiness factor? Maybe this eases the human mind? Rob Enderle, principal analyst with Enderle Group says “Initially, the most successful robots remain those that don't try to look human and focus on doing things machines do better than we do, but these efforts provide a stepping stone to much more human-like future efforts”. Because advancements in robot technology is very complicated, these efforts are more than a decade or more away. Even if it takes 50 years, it may eventually impact our lives in many aspects. Kodomoroid sure doesn't want to stop anytime soon, she says she dreams of having her own television show one day.