Now it looks like the word is about to take on a whole new meaning. 

Wired News reports that Hiroshi Ishiguro, a researcher at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories in Japan, has created a robotic avatar of himself. It’s called “Geminoid.”

Geminoid is basically made of silicone (not silicon) and steel. It looks just like him. It even moves like him. How did this happen?

Dr. Ishiguro took detailed casts of his own body. It’s powered by pressurized air and small actuator motors. That’s not particularly new, although it is unusual. It’s what he added to the mix that makes this new: The robot has built in motion programs that mimic his own behavior.

 It blinks. It fidgets in its seat. It taps its foot. The torso even moves as if it were breathing. To an observer, this looks like a “man in a mask” — a person wearing a rubber mask, much like the actor who played Gollum in Lord of the Rings.

It also talks — and its mouth forms the words as if it were speaking. The voice is, of course, Ishiguro’s.

It gets even spookier. Ishiguro has programmed it for “tele-operation.” This is a technology originally developed for deep space operations, especially in harsh environments unsuited to humans.

Essentially, the human operator makes a motion such as moving a hand. Special motion detection technology precisely records that motion and transmits it to the robot, which precisely mimics the motion. In this way, a person can act at a distance — even a great distance.

And that’s the idea. If, as the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention,” then this is a prime example. In addition to his work at ATR, Dr. Ishiguro teaches at Osaka University. The commute takes an hour, so the robot was designed to save him two hours of driving by taking his place.

His focus on developing what the Japanese call sonzai-kan, or presence. The idea is to imbue the robot with enough of this students and even family can “feel” him through Geminoid.

From a research perspective, humanlike robots can be used to test theories about human perception, communication and cognition.

Soon, Ishiguro intends to start interacting with students and even performing teaching duties through Geminoid.

The commercial possibilities are intriguing indeed. Ishiguro imagines androids for hire to reduce the need for travel. He commented, “If I could have one at the university, and one at ATR, I would just do all my work from a hot-springs resort.”

This may not be so far-fetched in a few years. With airport “security” amounting to a recurring proctologic exam and airplanes packing passengers in like sardines, the appeal of business travel is steadily diminishing.

It’s not hard to envision a near future in which, for a price of several hundred thousand dollars, one can have a personal avatar permanently stationed in another locale. For example, consider the executive who must commute between two continents on a regular basis. It might be preferable to have an avatar at one of those to attend meetings.

Viewed this way, the avatar is basically the next evolution of telecommunications technology. We’ve moved from teleconferencing to videoconferencing. This adds one more element of reality to the mix.

Of course, the executive might very well be inspired by Ishiguro’s vision and have two avatars — one in each city, with the executive himself sits sipping margaritas in a beachside resort. (The avatars would probably have a “nap mode,” during which the operator is otherwise engaged.)

I expect such avatars to be commercially available within 15 years. The technology won’t stop there. The “flesh” of the avatars will become ever more humanlike and sensitive to touch. The intelligence guiding them will become ever more sophisticated and flexible, until it approaches and even surpasses human levels.

Eventually — and I expect this within 30 years — the avatars will be so sophisticated that owners will be able to send them forth on missions and trust them to act independently.

I can only begin to imagine the social implications. What I do know is that the technology has compelling advantages and therefore is almost certain to be commercialized.

I’ll be watching closely to see which companies move most aggressively into this market space. I’ll look forward to interviewing their CEOs, and will be most intrigued if I’m greeted by an avatar.

To your profitable future,
Jonathan Kolber
December 10, 2007

P.S.: My Emerging Capital Report readers just learned of one company that is even more exciting than robotic avatars. This company just figured out how to cure one of the world’s most deadly diseases.

Emerging Robotic Technology was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.