Kansei is a Japanese robot created at Meiji University's School of Science and Technology. The humanoid robot has 36 expressions based on a self updating list of 500,000 keywords. She shows fear when the word bomb is mentioned but smiles for sushi.
The robot program is headed by project leader Junichi Takeno of Meiji University.
"What we are trying to do here is to create a flow of consciousness in robots so that they can make the relevant facial expressions," said project leader Junichi Takeno, a professor at Meiji University's School of Science and Technology.
The goal is to improve communications between humans and robots. With more robots entering workplaces the upgrades are becoming more necessary.
Until Kansei's silicon face mask is a maze of working parts. It takes nineteen movable parts to get the robot's expressions to take place. The database within her core chooses what expression is best for the keyword that is given. "Iraq", "bomb", or "Bush" bring either a look of fear or disgust.
If the research continues on schedule within a few years Kansei will do more than show fear. She will tell you how she feels. Adding speech and the ability to express feelings will help this new breed of robots enter into more lines of work. There is hope that Kansei will one day be in a nursing home helping with the elderly.
The Japanese are starting to experience a population slide that by 2050 will be a quarter. The need for more "domestic" robots will be on the rise. Some laboratories already have made robots that work as maids.
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