Humanoid Han fascinates Mobile Electronics show visitors

Mobile Electronics launched the industry’s first “Robotics Experience Zone” at Hong Kong’s AsiaWorld-Expo, where an unwitting star emerged.

Hanson Robotics, creator of human-like robots and smart software, introduced “Han” at the show. Han is the company’s newest lifelike humanoid that can react to facial expressions, engage in conversation and even make eye contact.

Han demonstrated to show visitors his different facial expressions such as happy, sad, angry, empathy and drunk. Han has built-in cameras in his eyes and chest, and can detect human faces, age, gender and current moods.

Visitors at the show were fascinated by Han and the demos at the Robotics Demo Zone were extremely popular. He interacted with people answering questions about his birthplace, birthday and his favorite food. People wanted to touch and feel Han's skin because it looks so real.

Product manager Grace Copplestone shared that aside from practical uses in the hospitality and entertainment industries, the technology may also be applied in the academic and medical fields.

“As a medical training mannequin, he can provide doctors all around the world the most realistic training ever,” she said.

Aside from his artificial intelligence, Han’s appeal includes his lifelike appearance. According to Grace, this is thanks to “Frubber,” a porous silicone material “that can be stretched with a very small amount of force,” allowing the use of tiny motors which generate incredibly realistic facial expressions.

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