Life size humanoid robot that reproduces gestures as a communication terminal: appearance considerations

We propose an application that uses a humanoid robot as a communications terminal. We describe a life-size robot that suits inter-personal communication. For simplicity, the current version is restricted to a motorized chair. We show that the robot realizes three service modes: chat mode, e-mail mode and autonomous mode. In chat mode, the hand gestures of the humanoid robot reproduce those made by the operator as captured by surface EMG signal recognition. the humanoid robot is seen as a feasible instrument of telecommunication.