Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/10/very-weird-faceless-robot-baby.html
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I for one welcome our new blank robot overlords.
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If you pick it up and hug it, an accelerometer will sense the motion, and Hiro-chan’s mood will improve until it starts to laugh.
It sounds like throwing it would make it happy even faster
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Needs a Mr Potatohead-like set of Velcro features.
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You can project all your hopes, disapointments and expectations on them - just like your real children.
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To me this seems like a pretty good, economical design move, but I guess if you were traumatised as a child by faceless babies driven by an insatiable hunger for human marrow, then yeah, it could be a problem.
When I used to visit my grandmother in the home for perplexed seniors, there was this one lady who always carried round a teddy bear and generally acted like a happy toddler, but sometimes she’d get distressed and keep wailing “where’s my mum”, and then my grandmother would yell at her to shut up (which was on brand for her). Point being, an hour of that scene usually left me wanting to cry all the moisture out of my body and replace it with vodka, so if people working in elder care think faceless robot babies can take the edge off, I wish them every success.
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Providing personal attention and care to every single individual is a difficult task but i can’t ever imagine my grandma (before passing away) ever showing interest in something like this. What she liked was attention from the family.
I don’t know, i recognize its a difficult problem, especially in countries or areas where the aging population is pretty big.
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Very well done! Chapeau.
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Well, I guess this avoids any “uncanny valley” problems.
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When I was a kid, I was so creeped out by my faceless Amish doll I drew a face on it with marker.
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Good grief!
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but also the effect of reducing the labor of the facility staff
Please just don’t do this.
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I have met something like this when visiting a home for the elderly in the UK: it’s not just a wacky Japanese robot idea, and it can help. Apparently, the holder used to be a midwife, and holding a ‘baby’ stopped her getting confused. This ‘baby’ looked uncanny-valley real, but this plain version might have worked just as well.
I was there with an acapella choir. That can help too.
Me too.
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This doll (designed by hyper-realist sculptor Ron Mueck) was a regular fixture on 90s Australian children’s TV. It was created so all kids could identify with it regardless of race/gender etc.
I think the gif is from the episode where the doll convinces the boy to stab his parents while they sleep and use their entrails as a blanket.
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Doctor Who made sure the combination of that question and a faceless robot would give me the creeps:
