Geminoids (Actroid), android and gynoids robots, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Japan

Developed by Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro at Osaka University and ATR. Learn more:

"Meet Geminoid F, a Smiling Female Android"

by Erico Guizzo
April 4, 2010

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Making of a geminoid.
First visit to Kokoro in Tokyo. The mold of the face has to be very accurate in order to make the geminoid convincing

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Meeting of 3 Geminoids at ATR in March 2011. A landmark in a
Android Science.

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Geminoid HI-1 is a doppelganger droid built by its male co-creator, roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro. It is controlled by a motion-capture interface. It can imitate Ishiguro's body and facial movements, and it can reproduce his voice in sync with his motion and posture. Ishiguro hopes to develop the robot's human-like presence to such a degree that he could use it to teach classes remotely, lecturing from home while the Geminoid interacts with his classes at Osaka University.

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Promo for the 2014 India Today Conclave in New Delhi

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The Global Mail's Aubrey Belford travels to Japan, where he meets Geminoid-F and her maker, Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro.

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Geminoid F serenades the crowd during Hong Kong's "Robots in Motion 2012" Expo

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The amazingly realistic female android, named Actroid DER 2, was demonstrated at the AKIBA Robot Festival here in the Akihabara district of Tokyo.

Philip K. Dick asked, "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" Now, decades later, we still don't have a definitive answer to his query, though we may find out sooner than anyone thinks. Although they haven't been combined into a complete, fully functional android yet, all of the required pieces seem to be coming together in an amazingly realistic fashion.

A good example is the "Actroid DER 2" android exhibited at the AKIBA Robot Festival last weekend here in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. This female android is surprisingly realistic, right down to the polish on her dainty fingernails, her facial movements, and even skin tone.

We've seen a lot of impressive photos and videos of Actroid DER in the past, but honestly - none of them really do justice to the android's realism. Seeing it in person, up close, is a totally different, and almost startling experience that can't be effective captured on film or video.

Her movements are surprisingly realistic. Obviously a great deal of time and effort has been devoted to studying the body language of real women so that it could be emulated by the android. Of course all of her actions and words are carefully scripted. Her creators have even gone to the trouble of including a little humor.

At one point during the demonstration she explains how she uses specially designed air servos that give her a 'nice body', implying that she doesn't have to watch her calories or worry about gaining weight. Later during the demo she cautions the men in the audience not to touch her because that would be sexual harassment. Interestingly, many of the spectators accepted her comment totally and were nodding their heads politely in agreement. Logically they knew she wasn't real, but they automatically behaved as if she were.

From a technology perspective, the android is stationary and has air tubes running up through her feet and legs to operate the custom air servos that provide her realistic movement. The air compressor and associated electronics is located in a box about the size of a small, half height refrigerator. Due to all the ambient noise at the event, and the crowds, we really couldn't determine how loud or annoying Actroid's air system might actually be.

Kokoro, the company responsible for the development and marketing of Actroid DER 2, is actually a subsidiary of Sanrio Ltd - the 'Hello Kitty' company. In addition to some amazing mechanical creations like Actroid DER and a series of huge animatronic dinosaurs, Kokoro has also developed unique vending machines - including the popular Hello Kitty popcorn machines you've probably seen at major amusement parks.


In Japanese, the word 'kokoro' means 'heart', and the company is dedicated to using their technology to "... touch the hearts of the people." Their primary catch phrase, or theme, is "Doukoku - moving sculpture".

It's also interesting to note that Kokoro was established as a company in 1984, just two years after the general release of "Blade Runner", the cinema classic based on Philip K. Dick's novel and question about androids dreaming. Could it be that the company founders drew their inspiration to create androids from Dick's work? One strong positive clue is the domain name that they selected for their company. They picked "kokoro-dreams.com". Obviously, they have very good taste in names.

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This android robot was demoed for Robotopia at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

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This is a robot created by Kokoro Co. Ltd. and ATR. It is called the Actroid-F. It can do human like movements with almost human like precision. This includes face movements, gestures, speaking, and other movements. It
is truly a robot ahead of its time. For all you know, it might
be coming to a hospital near you

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Coco, is the first actroid "the world's most advanced android robot".
She was our guest at Gitex 2015

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AIST, Osaka University, The University of Tokyo

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A humanoid Actroid robot dressed in a Shinjuku Takashimaya department store uniform welcomes visitors to the Life and Robot exhibition. The event will run until Aug. 14, 2016.

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Android “Actroid Sakura” (Kokoro Dreams)
Science Museum, Tokyo, Japan

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