Creepy robot toddler can mimic human expressions

Bipedal robots (at least some of them) are becoming increasingly agile and humanlike in their movements. Despite this, one physical aspect remains stuck in the uncanny valley--realistic facial expressions. One solution, however, may be found by treating expressions as an interplay between various "waveforms." The result is a new "dynamic arousal expression" system developed by researchers at Osaka University that allows a bot to mimic expressions more quickly and seamlessly than its predecessors. The potential solution, detailed in a study published in the Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics, requires first classifying various facial gestures like yawning, blinking, and breathing as individual waveforms.