Is this the world's creepiest robot? Japanese inventor develops the bald, legless Telenoid R1



Its pale torso is about the size of a small child, it has no legs and just stumps for arms.

For a man who has made his life's work coming up with increasingly creepy robots, Hiroshi Ishiguro has really outdone himself this time.

The Japanese roboticist has just unveiled his latest creation - a strange robotic creature called the Telenoid R1.

Scroll down to watch the robot in action



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Ishiguro has, in the past, tried to exactly replicate living humans and once developed an eerie robot replica of himself that he named Geminoid HI-1.

He also came up with a terrifyingly lifelike female robot called the Gemnoid F.

But the new Telenoid is something of a departure for the eccentric inventor.



Ishiguro designed the Telenoid R1 to be a robot that could appear like many different ages and that is easily transportable.

It is intended to be used as a communication device so that people can 'chat' from long distances: the robot is supposed to be able toe transmit the presence' of a person from a distant place.

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To operate, the user must sit at a computer with a webcam that tracks the user's movements and captures their voice.

Actuator's in the robot's body help it to move in a realistic way.



These movements are then mimicked by the Telenoid which is sitting with the message's recipient.

The Telenoid R1 will be demonstrated at this year's Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria.

Ishiguro says: 'The unique appearance may be eerie when we first see it. However, once we communicate with others by using the telenoid, we can adapt to it.

'If a friend speaks from the telenoid, we can imagine the friend’s face on the telenoid’s face.

'If we embrace it, we have the feeling, that we embrace the friend.'



A commercial version of the Telenoid will go on sale later this year for about £5,000.

