Japanese Researchers Make Robotic Horror in the Image of a Five-Year-Old Girl

A group of cyberneticists from Tsukuba University in Japan have channeled a new robot straight out of Silent Hill. Sinking deeper into the 'uncanny valley' than "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" orbiting a black hole, the researchers have crammed 50 sensors and a bunch of motors into a terrifying silicon skin designed to approximate a five-year-old girl. 'Approximate' is the operative word, and it's used loosely, just like the skin itself, which looks realistic enough (aside from the harrowing eyelids) but hangs lifelessly on its mechanical frame.

Dubbed the Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL (surprise, surprise), the skinsuit that wraps creepy little "Repliee" the robot was developed as part of research to "help pensioners and disabled people move much better."

Apparently the strategy is to scare the bejeezus out of old folks and use their last remaining adrenalin to flee in terror. If you don't believe us, check out video of the 'living' doll here.

Cyberdyne, Inc. (nee 'Umbrella Corp.'?) is making the technology available to mass markets Friday.

The cyber-zombie apocalypse is scheduled for the following Monday.

[via The Sun UK]