The HRP-4C, nicknamed Miim, is a feminine-looking humanoid robot created by the

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology The , or AIST, is a Japanese research facility headquartered in Tokyo, and most of the workforce is located in Tsukuba Science City, Ibaraki, and in several cities throughout Japan. The institute is managed to integrate scientific and engineeri ...

(AIST), a

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese research facility. Miim measures 158 centimetres (5 feet, 2 inches) tall and weighs 43 kilos (95 pounds) including a battery pack. She has a realistic head and face, and the figure of an average young Japanese female (based on the 1997–1998 Japanese body dimension database). She can move like a human, utilizing 30 body motors and another eight dedicated to facial expressions. Miim can also respond to speech using speech recognition software, and is capable of recognizing ambient sounds. Miim can also sing, using the vocal synthesizer

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

. The software that operates the robot is developed on the basis of Open Robotics Platform (OpenRTP), including

OpenRTM-aist OpenRTM-aist is a computing platform, software platform developed on the basis of the RT middleware standard. OpenRTM-aist is developed by National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology which also contributes to definition of the ...

and OpenHRP3. An initial public demonstration was held on March 16, 2009, with another held at Tokyo's Digital Content Expo in 2010 to showcase recent upgrades that allow HRP-4C to mimic human facial and head movements, as well as execute dance steps. 2011 upgrades to Miim's human-like walking ability were shown in a video released by AIST, and have been called "super-realistic". Applications for the HRP-4C may include the entertainment industry, and a human simulator for evaluation of devices.

Vocal capabilities

HRP-4C was shown at the CEATEC JAPAN 2009 Festival in June 2009, and its speaking and singing capabilities were displayed. For speaking, it uses a prototype

voicebank called CV-4Cβ, developed by

Crypton Future Media , or simply Crypton, is a Japanese media company based in Sapporo, Japan. It develops, imports, and sells products for music, such as sound generator software, sampling CDs and DVDs, and sound effect and background music libraries. The company al ...

. CV-4Cβ's vocal provider was

Eriko Nakamura is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer from Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. In 2014, at the 4th Newtype Anime awards, she won a voice actor award (female). Biography After going through the Japan Narration Acting Institute, she joined Art ...

, and Crypton's commercial plans for the voicebank are unknown as of December 2012. It was also shown "

cosplaying Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...

" as Hatsune Miku and could sing using the Miku voicebank. At this demonstration, it was able to move its head and lips in time with the music, but could not move other parts of its body. It could also use another Vocaloid voicebank named Megpoid.

References

External links

Features and cost

* ttp://www.aist.go.jp/aist_j/press_release/pr2009/pr20090316/pr20090316.html National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology's page on the HRP-4C * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hrp-4c Androids Robots of Japan 2009 robots

Vocal capabilities

See also

References

External links