By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
A team of South Korean scientists are to produce dramas with robots playing the main characters, and some scenes will feature just androids without any human actors.
The team led by Lee Ho-gil at the state-run Korea Institute of Industrial Technology said Tuesday that its "female" android, dubbed EveR-3, will take a leading role in multiple shows throughout this year.
A combination of "Eve" and "robot", EveR-1 was first unveiled midway through 2005 as the world's second android following Japan's ACTROID. Two of its sequels came to town later and EveR-3 debuted late 2008.
"EveR-3 was created for performances and played in traditional Korean operas or dramas for children, such as the 'Robot Princess and the Seven Dwarfs' in late 2009," Lee told The Korea Times.
"During last year's drama, we tried a scene where just EveR-3 and its servant robot appear. We learned that it was not easy but we will continue similar trials this year," he said.
However, Lee expected that it will be a long time before robots perform on a stage for hours without the help of human actors.
"It is a long shot. Before artificially intelligent robots are developed, all-robot plays will be difficult because current models are not flexible. In other words, they are not designed to respond to audiences. Hence, people will not appreciate such performances," Lee said.
"But we will try to build some scenes composed of only robots down the road. If they continue for a few minutes, people are expected to accept them."
When android actors start to replace humans, Lee predicts that the cost of performing a play would substantially decrease because a skeleton staff will be sufficient.
"Currently, dozens of staff members are necessary for a single drama. For a big one, the figure is more often than not in three digits. But when robots take center stage, half this number would be enough," Lee said.
EveR-3 is an android that is 157 centimeters tall and weighs 50 kilograms. With beautiful style and lifelike skin, it has an ability to communicate in two languages and lips synchronized to the words.
More than 20 motors allow a total of 16 facial expressions to show feelings such as joy, anger, sorrow and happiness depending on different situations.
The current model moves on wheels but Lee hopes to upgrade it to a bipedal one so that it can have a human-like gait.