Humanoid [Hardcover]

This is the first and only book of portraits of android and humanoid robots. The robots in these photographs by Max Aguilera-Hellweg, a photojournalist for 40 years whose work has appeared inLife,NYT Magazine,Rolling Stone,Discover,Scientific American,Time, andNational Geographic, are some of the most well known in the world of humanoid robotics. The photographs explore the many ways scientists and engineers are creating robots with human attributes, qualities, and abilities, and the means by which the robots engage us in what is known as human-robot interaction. The relationship of humans to robots can be as subtle as nonverbal communication; as intuitive as whether you should pass someone on the left or pass on the right to avoid sidewalk salsa; as intimate as developing an affectionate personal relationship with a machine, or as never before conceived of, but now as important as life and deathautonomous robots programmed for ethical decision making in the battlefield. Author and photographer Max Aguilera-Hellweg has embarked on a journey through Japan and the United States to explore the turning point in the evolution of robot science, where robots are becoming more like humans, crossing the great divide between data processing and sentience.Humanoid's breathtaking photographs present android robots designed to look and act like a human, beyond the imaginary Data from the TV seriesStar Trek, Pris, the replicant (played by Daryl Hannah) in the movieBlade Runner, or the synths of the hit TV seriesHumans. Some of the humanoid robots portrayed in this profound book, such as Bina48, Joey Chaos, and Geminoid-F have humanlike skin, hair, hands, even fingernailsthey have been created to resemble with extreme accuracy an actual human being. Other humanoids are devoid of such external attributes but replicate the anatomy of a humanarms, legs, torso, a head and eyeslike, for example, thel³B