Researcher Yuhang Hu, and other researchers who work with professor Hod Lipson at the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University, have developed a machine learning robot named Emo that has facial co-expression skills such as making eye contact, mimicking a human smile as or before it happens, and making other facial expressions.
Emo is a human-like head with a face that is equipped with 26 actuators that enable a broad range of nuanced facial expressions. The head is covered with a soft silicone skin with a magnetic attachment system, allowing for easy customization and quick maintenance. For more lifelike interactions, the researchers integrated high-resolution cameras within the pupil of each eye, enabling Emo to make eye contact, crucial for nonverbal communication
Emo Was Trained to Perfect These Gestures With a Mirror
To train the robot how to make facial expressions, the researchers put Emo in front of the camera and let it do random movements. After a few hours, the robot learned the relationship between their facial expressions and the motor commands — much the way humans practice facial expressions by looking in the mirror. This is what the team calls “self modeling”
