Haven’t updated this in a long while! Long story short, I applied for a job in the UK and after about five months of faffing around with bureaucracy, have finally been granted a work visa. So, what’s up? I’m now part of the R&D team for Engineered Arts, an engineering contracting company that specialises in the creation of humanoid robots for research and entertainment purposes.
Basically I’ll be helping to make these guys a little bit more human. One of the challenges with biomimetic humanoids is to create machines that are sufficiently lifelike to inspire natural responses, without making them creepy as all hell. It’s a narrow line to walk! Right now we’re hoping to collaborate on an FP7 grant which aims to parameterize the uncanny valley. Fingers crossed for the next judging round …