Android
An
android is a
robot made to resemble a
human, usually both in appearance and behavior. The word derives from the
Greek andr-, " meaning "
man, male", and the suffix
-eides, used to mean "of the
species; alike" (from
eidos "species"). The word
droid, a robot in the
Star Wars universe, is derived from this meaning.
There are currently (2006) a handful of android projects which have been successfully completed. The Intelligent Robotics Lab directed by Hiroshi Ishiguro at
Osaka University and Kokoro Co., Ltd. have demonstrated the android
Repliee Q1Expo at
Expo 2005 in
Aichi Prefecture,
Japan. The
Korea Institute for Industrial Technology (KITECH) has begun demonstrating
EveR-1, an android interpersonal communications model capable of emulating human emotion via facial "musculature", and capable of rudimentary conversation having a ~400 word vocabulary. EveR-1's name derives from the
Biblical Eve, plus the letter "r" for robot. This android is not bipedal, but is capable of motion from her torso up.
The Intelligent Mechatronics Lab directed by Kobayashi at The Science University of Tokyo has developed an android head called Saya, which was exhibited at Robodex 2002 in Yokohama, Japan. Also of note, a domestic android named Valerie, which is under development, is hoped to be capable of simple bipedal movement, and make use of AT&T speech synthesis for verbal interactions. This android will allegedly be capable of doing routine chores such as cleaning, as well as complex tasks such as phoning in emergencies and browsing the Internet. The model will retail for ~$60,000. There are several other initiatives around the world involving humanoid research and development at this time, which will hopefully introduce a broader spectrum of realized technology in the near future.
The world was shocked in November 05' when KAIST Research Institute of Korea and Dallas, Texas based Hanson Robotics, Inc (HRI) released the world's first android head mounted on a life-size walking bi-pedal frame at the APEC Summit in Seoul, Korea. The walking frame was the latest in Hubo technology, while the head was an exact recreation of the late physicist, Albert Einstein. The android was able to speak and cover a wide range of natural facial expressions, built upon prior HRI development on the Philip K. Dick android, which made its official debut at the Wired Magazine NextFext 05' in Chicago, Illinois.
The humanoid prototype was officially dubbed "Albert Einstein Hubo".
Unlike the terms
robot (a "
mechanical" being) and
cyborg (a being that is partly
organic and partly mechanical), the word
android has been used in literature and other media to denote several different kinds of
artificially constructed beings:
* a robot that closely resembles a human
* a cyborg that closely resembles a human
* an artificially created, yet primarily organic, being that closely resembles a human
Although human morphology is not necessarily the ideal form for working robots, the fascination in developing robots that can mimic it can be found historically in the assimilation of two concepts:
simulacra (devices that exhibit likeness) and
automata (devices that have independence).
The term android was first used by the French author
Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1838-1889) in his work
Tomorrow's Eve, featuring an artificial human-like robot named Hadaly. As said by the officer in the story, "In this age of Realien advancement, who knows what goes on in the mind of those responsible for these mechanical dolls."
Although
Karel ÄŒapek's robots in
R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (1921)—the play that introduced the word "robot" to the world—were organic artificial humans, the word
robot has come to primarily refer to mechanical humans, animals, and other beings. The term android can mean either one of these, while a
cyborg ("cybernetic organism" or "bionic man") would be a creature that is a combination of organic and mechanical parts.
In the semantic sense, the word "android" is a misnomer. The intended meaning is "an artificial human being like being" while the literal translation is "like a male being." The word
andros has definite meaning of "male human being" in Greek, while the word
man can mean either "male human being" or "human being in general." The gender-neutral word for human being in Greek is
anthropos, and the correct word for an artificial human being-like automaton would be
anthropoid.
Historically,
science fiction authors have used "android" in a greater diversity of ways than the terms "robot" and "cyborg". In some fiction works, the primary difference between a robot and android is only skin-deep, with androids being made to look almost exactly like humans on the outside, but with internal mechanics exactly the same as that of robots. In other stories, authors have defined android to indicate a wholly organic, yet artificial, creation. Other definitions of android fall somewhere in between.
The character
Data, from the
television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, is described as an android. Data became
intoxicated in an early episode ("
The Naked Now") and is later referred to having "bioplast sheeting" for skin ("
The Most Toys"), perhaps suggesting that he was initially intended by the writers to be at least partially organic. Otherwise, Data was shown to be mechanical throughout and this often became a central plot theme.
The
Replicants from the movie
Blade Runner were
bioengineered organic beings. While they were not referred to as either robots or androids in the movie, the screenplay was originally based on a
novel by
Philip K. Dick called
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?In the video game
Beneath a Steel Sky, genetically engineered androids similar to Blade Runner's Replicants are a central plot theme. However, despite their organic makeup, their behavior is programmed by computer.
The robots of ÄŒapek's
R.U.R. were organic in nature. Today, an author writing a similar story might very well be inclined to call them androids.
The character Ash in the movie
Alien, another artificial organic being, is often referred to as an android (though not in the dialogue of the movie itself). Similarly, the character Bishop in
Aliens and
Alien³ is a more advanced android commonly called a Synthetic, but prefers to be called an "artificial person". Much later in the series timeline, the character Call in
Alien Resurrection is ashamed of being an android.
C-3PO and
R2-D2 from the
Star Wars movies are referred to as
droids. While C-3PO could reasonably be called an android because he is humanoid in appearance, the squat cylinder R2-D2 is only humanoid in behavior.
In the movie
A.I., the robotic characters are called
mechas, but the film is loosely based on a short story written by
Brian Aldiss called "Supertoys Last All Summer Long", in which the central character David is called an android (by which Aldiss seemed to be referring to an organic creation).
In the anime/manga
Chobits, Androids are known as "Persocoms", essentially computers in a man-made body. The series does not go into their internal composition, but it is assumed to be artificial with a very realistic outside. One of the key points of this series was a special type of persocom named "Chobit", a persocom that had free will and the ability to fall in love and have emotions.
The
Cylon race in the reimagined
Battlestar Galactica series includes twelve android models that are virtually indistinguishable from human beings, even possessing blood, tears, internal organs, and functioning reproductive systems.
The character
Kryten from the television show,
Red Dwarf, is described as being a "Mechanoid" as well as an android. This is a melding of the words "Mechanical" and "Humanoid". According to the episode "DNA", his brain is part-organic, and his
DNA can therefore be altered. He is also capable of breaking his programming and obtaining emotions, though this proves to be difficult as diplayed in the episode, "Camille".
Thus far, androids have remained mostly within the domain of
science fiction and, frequently, in
film and
television. However, some "
humanoid robots" exist.
One of the earliest android characters is Otho from the
Captain Future stories of
Edmond Hamilton. Otho's construction is never discussed but he is much more human-like than his companion Grag, a mechanical
robot.
Isaac Asimov's robot stories are mostly about androids; many are collected in
I, Robot (1950). They promulgated a set of rules of ethics for androids and robots (see
Three Laws of Robotics) that greatly influenced other writers and thinkers in their treatment of the subject. Most of Asimov's robots appear too artificial to be mistaken for human beings, with the notable exceptions of R. Jander Panell,
R. Daneel Olivaw and Andrew Martin.
Perhaps the most famous android is
Data, played by actor
Brent Spiner, of the series
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) and several spin-off motion pictures; this character was largely inspired by another android character created by
Gene Roddenberry for
The Questor Tapes. Data's immediate 'family' â€" brothers
Lore and
B-4 et al., daughter
Lal, and 'mother'
Dr. Juliana Tainer â€" were also androids (and the fembots are properly, though rarely, referred to as
gynoids) from the same creator,
Dr. Noonien Soong.
Earlier in
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), the Ilia
probe â€" a precisely duplicated biomechanical
drone of
Lieutenant Ilia, with some of her
emotions intact â€" was dispatched by
V'ger to gather information about the crew of the
starship Enterprise.
In the TV series
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda (2000–2005), the
gynoid Rommie is an extension of
the starship's AI operating system, represented by an
avatar of Rommie.
In the re-imagined series
Battlestar Galactica (2003–), the gynoid
Number Six is one of a (seductive) variant of the
antagonistic, robotic
Cylons that is used to infiltrate the fleeing
human Colonial forces and, particularly, the mind of the scientist
Dr. Gaius Baltar.
Androids (Jinzou Ningen in
Japanese; meaning 'artificial human') are also a race in
Dragon Ball,
Dragon Ball Z, and
Dragon Ball GT. The androids' names were only numbers (such as Android #13 or Android #20). They were created by Dr. Gero, Dr. Muu, and the Red Ribbon Army. Some are entirely artificial and some are created from humans and can be considered cyborgs.
Jinzo Ningen
Kikaider was the first
manga and
tokusatsu series to feature an android protagonist.
The series
Xenosaga borrows Villiers' original term Realian when referring to a race of beings created by Vector Corporation. Two playable characters are androids (MOMO and KOS-MOS). One is referred to as a Realian while the second is simply an android.
In their respective series by
Capcom,
Mega Man was initially called a "humanoid", which was then simplified to robot.
X, a later version, is said to be more advanced, more independent of thought, and closer to an android. Other beings, based off his design, are called
Reploids.
In the episode of
Doctor Who,
Bad Wolf, with deadly versions of 20th century gameshows, there is an android host of
The Weakest Link called the "Anne Droid".
Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the role of an android named "the Terminator" in
The Terminator series.
Many more examples may be found in this
list of fictional robots.
* Kerman, Judith B. (1991).
Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. ISBN 0879725095
* Shelde, Per (1993).
Androids, Humanoids, and Other Science Fiction Monsters: Science and Soul in Science Fiction Films. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0814779301
* Sidney Perkowitz (2004)
Digital People: From Bionic Humans to Androids Joseph Henry Press. ISBN 0309096197
*
Android science*
Animatronic*
Artificial intelligence*
Cyborg*
Domestic robot*
EveR-1*
Gynoid*
Humanoid*
Humanoid robot*
Muscle wire*
Realdoll*
Repliee Q1Expo*
Robot*
Sex doll*
Statuephilia*
Transhumanism*
Uncanny valley*
Hubo*
Android World*
Android Science*
Valerie, the domestic female android.
*
Albert Einstein Hubo: by Hanson Robotics and KAIST
