Geminoid - Tele - operated Android of an Existent Person -

Androids are testbets for studying human-robot interaction. They enable us to compare the developed robot technologies and humans in a direct manner. Especially, they can be used for verifying cognitive and psychological hypotheses. And then the verified hypotheses are applied for improving the androids. This tight connection between robotics and cognitive science is called android science. The developed androids so far, however, are not enough for various cognitive tests. Especially, they lack abilities for long-term conversation. In order to compensate this problem, we need to consider high-bride systems in which a human and the android are integrated. The integrated system is called geminoid. Geminoid is a new category of robot. It is a teleoperated android of an existent person. By using the geminod, we can tackle to the unsolved problems and extend the framework of android science. Appearance and behavior of interactive robots Why are we attracted in humanoids and androids? The answer is simple. It is because of our tendency to anthropomorphize non-human things. We, humans, always anthropomorphize targets of communication and interaction. Therefore, we expect much with humanoids. In other words, we find a human itself in the humanoid. Recently, researchers’ interests in robotics are shifting from traditional studies on navigation and manipulation to interaction with the robots. The human-robot interaction study has been neglecting an issue. That is “appearance v.s. behavior problem.” The interactive robots that have been developed thus far are nonandroid types. Evidently, the appearance of the robot influences the impressions of the subjects, and it is a very important factor in the evaluation of the interaction (See Figure 1). There are many technical reports that compare robots with different behaviors; however, thus far, the appearance of the robots has not been focused upon. Although there are many empirical discussions on very simplified static robots such as dolls, the design of a robot’s appearance, particularly to make it appear a humanoid, has always been a role of industrial designers. This is a serious problem for developing and evaluating interactive robots. The appearance and the behavior are tightly coupled, and the results of the evaluation change with the appearance. Android Science that bridges science and