Robots

Professor Ishiguro

At the department of Adaptive Machine Systems at Osaka University, Professor Ishiguro dedicates his time to copying humans. He has already copied his daughter, so his next natural step is to copy himself. As he says: ”It’s very practical to have the master nearby!”

Ishiguro doesn’t create androids to work at factory assembly lines. The purpose of his robots is to eventually become a part of social services. In the film we will follow Professor Ishiguro as he works on the world’s most complex android, the copy of himself. The major task of copying himself has made Professor Ishiguro wonder, what it takes to be human, and he works closely with psychologists and programmers to narrow in on what qualifies us as human beings and to copy such qualities. How far do we stand apart when we talk to each other? How exactly do we move our body when we think we are sitting still? How do we react physically to emotional input? How does the physical experience of a lifetime express itself?

Professor Takanori Shibata

In another part of Japan, Professor Takanori Shibata, one of Japan’s most prominent robot developers, has created the cute little baby seal Paro. Heavy research has gone into the hardware underneath the fluffy coat. It is programmed to be entirely autonomous, with its own individual way of living and ability to learn. Holding the little seal has proved as a cure for dementia (or at least diminishes it)and helps children in hospitals recover faster. Paro stimulates our need for bodily and emotional contact. It simply bypasses our reflective faculties and walks straight into our hearts! (Professor Takanori’s Paro has now been introduced at nursing homes and in hospitals in both Sweden, France, Germany, Japan, Denmark and Italy).