The World Is Too Big......: Android

Ontario software programmer creates female android with human A.I. qualities. Image: Project Aiko.

Moving ever closer to realising his dream of creating a fully autonomous robotic companion, an Ontario man has made significant progress though a personal project that has recently birthed the makings of a female android with impressive artificial intelligence.

Standing at a little under five feet in height and weighing a mere 32 kilograms, brown-eyed (Project) Aiko has a humanlike silicon skin, realistic hair, and a moving mouth that helps simulate the convincing but computerised female speech emanating from her hardware internals.

Capable of speaking in either English or Japanese and already programmed with some 13 thousand common and useful phrases, Aiko’s abilities even stretch to reading blocks of text, tracking objects moving before her, distinguishing up to 300 faces per second, and even solving mathematical equations.

Remarkably, the hardware and physical representation of Project ‘Aiko’ (which derives from the Japanese words for love ‘Ai’ and child ‘ko’) took software programmer Le Trung only three months to construct.

Continually evolving his principal $25,000 USD design with new hardware and software in order to bestow more human qualities on Aiko, Le Trung has also given his creation access to servers so that she can relay up-to-date weather information and accurate times to whoever is interacting with her.

Interestingly, Le Trung has programmed Aiko to gauge and react both audibly and physically to human touch. This sees her complimenting a gentle hand stroked across her cheek and swinging an arm and chastising anyone who should happen to touch one of her breasts.

Evidently, the only thing Aiko cannot yet do is walk due to the project’s lack of financial sponsorship. While needing some 14 individual motors worth around $500 USD each to just get Aiko up on her feet, her ambitious inventor remains confident that funding will be forthcoming despite a recent run of knock backs from various Canadian funding sources.

And, for those looking at Aiko before then promptly jumping to crass assumptions, Le Trung is only too happy to reveal that his robotic work in progress has breasts, nipples and even a vagina equipped with sensors.

“Do I sleep with her?” asks Le Trung in recounting the most common question levelled at him by inquisitive visitors to his ProjectAiko Web site. “No,” he answers, explaining that he chose to make a female android as it would appear less threatening than a male version.

According to Le Trung, who has university degrees in analytical chemistry, biochemistry and general science, future applications for android creations such as Aiko could include helping the aged in nursing homes and occupying service roles in major international airports.