There has been an exponential increase in R&D related to virtual reality, photorealistic computer animations and augmented reality. Researchers from around the globe are working in these domains and have been creating machines which have the abilities of a human -- or humanoid robots. This is an emerging research domain which is now playing a crucial role in robotics research. However, according to the uncanny valley theory, the humanoid objects which imperfectly resemble actual human beings provoke uncanny or strangely familiar feelings of revulsion in observers. The IEEE spectrum ranks robots into three categories, -- top-rated, creepiest and most wanted.

Despite the tremendous progress we've made in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, building a robot that can convincingly emulate normal human behavior remains merely a fantasy at this stage. Some of them can speak and maybe even hold a conversation, but no robot comes close to being a real life'Ex Machina' yet. For the most part, the humanoid robots we've built so far come across as overly mechanical, unnervingly awkward and threateningly soulless… but somehow all of this creepiness makes them irresistibly fascinating. Tara the Android is perhaps the godmother of the robotic creepfest. While the video of this eerie singing mannequin was first uploaded back in 2009 and has since received over seven million views, little information is available about either Tara or her creator.