Experts find ways to make robo faces more expressive
Definition of kilogram changed after 130 yrs
London: The world’s standard definition of the kilogram, the ampere, the kelvin and the mole has been changed, after representatives from 60 countries voted to redefine the International System of Units ( SI) for weight, current, temperature and amount of chemical substance.
The definition of the kilogram for more than 130 years, the International Prototype of the Kilogram ( IPK), a cylinder of a platinum alloy stored at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures ( BIPM) in France, will now be retired.
It will be replaced by the Planck constant — the fundamental constant of quantum physics. While the stability of the IPK could only be confirmed by comparisons with identical copies, a difficult and potentially inaccurate process, the Planck constant is ready for use everywhere and always.
The decision, made at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles, France, which is organised by BIPM, means that all SI units will now be defined in terms of constants that describe the natural world.
This will assure the future stability of the SI and open the opportunity for the use of new technologies, including quantum technologies, to implement the definitions. Tokyo: Japanese scientists have found way to make faces of human- like robots more expressive, paving the way for machines to show a greater range of emotions, and ultimately have deeper interaction with people.
While robots have featured in advances in healthcare, industrial, and other settings, capturing humanistic expression in a robotic face remains an elusive challenge.
Researchers at Osaka University in Japan found a method for identifying and quantitatively evaluating facial movements on their android robot child head.
Named Affetto, the android’s first- generation model was first unveiled in 2011. The researchers have now found a system to make the second- generation Affetto more expressive.
Their findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI, offer a path for androids to express greater ranges of emotion, and ultimately have deeper interaction with humans.
“Surface deformations are a key issue in controlling android faces. Movements of their soft facial skin create instability, and this is a big hardware problem we grapple with,” said Minoru Asada from Osaka University.
“We sought a better way to measure and control it,” Asada said.
The researchers investigated 116 different facial points on Affetto to measure its three- dimensional movement. Facial points were underpinned by socalled deformation units.
Each unit comprises a set of mechanisms that create a distinctive facial contortion, such as lowering or raising of part of a lip or eyelid.