 Hi, I am Robo-phespian at the IEEE CES booth and this is The Verge. Will robots take over the world? Yes, and the revolution is set for a week from Saturday. Okay, I'm kidding. It's this Thursday. I'm kidding again. As much as science fiction movies might make you think we're ready to rule the world, we still depend on you for everything. Power, design, manufacturing, programming, a whole bag of tricks. And for every job that a robot takes over from a human, there are other human jobs created. Someone has to build, program, supervise, and maintain the amazing machines that are robots. It's a really impressive demo. The interesting thing is the technology here isn't that new. At the rest of CES we've seen new displays, new form factors, but animatronics hasn't changed that much since Jurassic Park 20 years ago. The thing is it doesn't have to. Robots are interesting. When they talk, you listen to what they're saying. It works so well that the Kennedy Space Center is already using Robo-thespian to teach kids about science, just to get the kids to listen. And the thing is, it isn't about technology. It's about the art of it. It is a robot, and we want to make it look like a robot. We want you to know and see how it's actually moving, how it's working. Now, if we didn't have that, and we tried to make it more like a human, it actually gets to a point where it gets a bit scary, when it looks too much like a human, but not quite. And in the robotics world, we call that uncanny valley. Future Robot is another example of this. You could do all this with a tablet, but it's a lot more compelling when there's a humanoid presence involved. People see a face on a robot, and they get drawn in. There's something interesting about it. And you see it happen at CES. People will be walking by, and they'll just get pulled into the magic of it. And they'll end up spending five minutes just interacting with the robot. Yeah, it's very universal. It's mostly the motion. The motion of his arms, his whole body, his head, and the emotion you get from his eyes. We've got big eyes that can convey a lot of emotion. That's where most of human emotion comes from. Because, of course, when you're talking to someone, you're looking at their eyes. So you have to have oversized eyes, like we have on RoboThespian. And he's also got LEDs on his cheeks. You know, he can be red if he's angry, or green if he's happy. So that emotion, that motion, you don't need language. There's no language barrier. Every country, every person can relate to it. The big problem for a lot of vendors at CES is, how do I get people to come in and actually use my product? Having a weird humanoid robot solves that in a really elegant way. It doesn't have a sharp display or a fast processor, but it's got robot pitch, and we respond to that. We want to know more. In the end, that might say more about us as human beings than them as machines. RoboThespian you
 Hi, I am Robo-phespian at the IEEE CES booth and this is The Verge.
 Will robots take over the world?
 Yes, and the revolution is set for a week from Saturday.
 Okay, I'm kidding. It's this Thursday. I'm kidding again.
 As much as science fiction movies might make you think we're ready to rule the world,
 we still depend on you for everything.
 Power, design, manufacturing, programming, a whole bag of tricks.
 And for every job that a robot takes over from a human, there are other human jobs created.
 Someone has to build, program, supervise, and maintain the amazing machines that are robots.
 It's a really impressive demo. The interesting thing is the technology here isn't that new.
 At the rest of CES we've seen new displays, new form factors,
 but animatronics hasn't changed that much since Jurassic Park 20 years ago.
 The thing is it doesn't have to. Robots are interesting.
 When they talk, you listen to what they're saying.
 It works so well that the Kennedy Space Center is already using Robo-thespian to teach kids about science,
 just to get the kids to listen.
 And the thing is, it isn't about technology. It's about the art of it.
 It is a robot, and we want to make it look like a robot.
 We want you to know and see how it's actually moving, how it's working.
 Now, if we didn't have that, and we tried to make it more like a human,
 it actually gets to a point where it gets a bit scary, when it looks too much like a human, but not quite.
 And in the robotics world, we call that uncanny valley.
 Future Robot is another example of this.
 You could do all this with a tablet, but it's a lot more compelling when there's a humanoid presence involved.
 People see a face on a robot, and they get drawn in. There's something interesting about it.
 And you see it happen at CES. People will be walking by, and they'll just get pulled into the magic of it.
 And they'll end up spending five minutes just interacting with the robot.
 Yeah, it's very universal. It's mostly the motion.
 The motion of his arms, his whole body, his head, and the emotion you get from his eyes.
 We've got big eyes that can convey a lot of emotion. That's where most of human emotion comes from.
 Because, of course, when you're talking to someone, you're looking at their eyes.
 So you have to have oversized eyes, like we have on RoboThespian.
 And he's also got LEDs on his cheeks.
 You know, he can be red if he's angry, or green if he's happy.
 So that emotion, that motion, you don't need language. There's no language barrier.
 Every country, every person can relate to it.
 The big problem for a lot of vendors at CES is, how do I get people to come in and actually use my product?
 Having a weird humanoid robot solves that in a really elegant way.
 It doesn't have a sharp display or a fast processor, but it's got robot pitch, and we respond to that.
 We want to know more. In the end, that might say more about us as human beings than them as machines.
 RoboThespian
 you