Zurich, Switzerland-based Disney Research has unveiled its new method of creating eerily perfect copies of human faces for use on robots, pointing the way toward a world in which everyone has an android identical twin. The robot countenances are made of silicone, capable of portraying the full range of emotions, and most disturbingly, will be used for animatronic characters at theme parks:
We propose a complete process for designing, simulating, and fabricating synthetic skin for an animatronics character that mimics the face of a given subject and its expressions.
We use physics-based simulation to predict the behavior of a face when it is driven by the underlying robotic actuation. Next, we capture 3D facial expressions for a given target subject. We demonstrate this computational skin design by physically cloning a real human face onto an animatronics figure.
