Russia New Robot Is More Than Just A Robot, It’s Actually A Human, Say What?

Earlier this week, the state-owned news channel Russia 24 praised the most advanced robot of the country so far.

Boris, the praised robot, can navigate itself, take part in a conversation, or even dance. However, Boris is not a hundred percent robot.

Boris

Boris was introduced by Russia 24 at a technology expo in Russia. She declared that the robot was so cool, emphasizing the fact that it has already learnt some dance moves. Nevertheless, while the show was aired, some viewers found something strange and suspicious about the robot.

In contrast to what a robot’s supposed to do, Boris appeared with several unnecessary movements that would make it harder for the robot to complete his tasks. Moreover, it looked like the robot did not have any sensors or external cameras, what viewers mostly saw was a bunch of LED lights on its head. Finally, there was something like a human neck revealed under the helmet.

So, Boris is not a robot, in fact, it is a robot costume made by Show Robots. With a guy under the robot outfit, this product is more likely to amuse kids, but the reported mistook.

Currently, Boris is on sale and priced at Rs 2.7 lakh, the robot costume consists of plastic parts as well as glowing eyes.

As goofy as the reporter may seem to make such a mistake on air, anyone could mistake that for a real robot. Anyway, robots are getting closer and closer to mimic human movements, said Boston Dynamics.

In certain cases, the robots’ speech skill can even fool you, Sophia for example. She is a humanoid robot that Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics developed. The company activated Sophia on Feb 14, 2016, then introduced her in March 2016, at South by Southwest Festival. Sophia can show over 50 facial expressions, she was covered by media globally and appeared in several high-profile interviews.

So, back to the case with Boris, for someone who’s not familiar with robotics, it’s understandable to mistake a robot costume for the real thing.