We love and fear robots, but sometimes it doesn’t seem like they heart us back. At this year’s SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles, Taisuck Kwon (from the Kyushu Institute of Design) demonstrated his latest work in the realm of “photo real” robots: robots designed to reproduce facial expressions of human beings.

The photo real robots convey emotions with facial features designed to put people at ease, “especially seniors and toddlers.” And though the robots have an underlying mechanical configuration that mimics the muscle structure of the human face, complete with servomotors and actuators used to manipulate “muscles” beneath the “skin”, they just seem to look even more creepy. If I weren’t too busy warning all of you about them, I would run like hell. I do my duty. Plus I’m waiting patiently for more realistic sex robots. Once we reach that plateau, I’ll have my way with a few robot babes, take one with me and head for the hills.

[National Geographic]