第2269期:Japanese Scientists Make Robot Face ‘Smile’ with Lab-Grown Skin

Japanese scientists have found a way to attach living skin tissue to robotic faces and make them "smile." This breakthrough could be helpful not only in robotics, but also in cosmetics and medicine.
日本科学家找到了一种将活体皮肤组织附着在机器人面部并使其“微笑”的方法。这一突破不仅对机器人技术有帮助，还可以应用于化妆品和医学领域。

Researchers at the University of Tokyo started the process by growing human skin cells in the shape of a face. Then, they used attachments that are similar to the ligaments in a human to pull the tissue into a wide smile.
东京大学的研究人员首先将人类皮肤细胞培养成面部的形状。然后，他们使用类似于人类韧带的附件将组织拉成一个大大的微笑。

Lead researcher Shoji Takeuchi is a professor at the University of Tokyo. He said the result is an important step towards building more life-like robots. Using the attachments, he said, “it became possible to manipulate living skin for the first time.”
首席研究员竹内昌治是东京大学的教授。他表示，这一结果是朝着构建更逼真机器人迈出的重要一步。他说，通过使用这些附件，“首次能够操纵活体皮肤”。

The study about the smiling robot appeared last month in Cell Reports Physical Science. It represents 10 years of research by Takeuchi and his lab on how to best combine biological and artificial machines.
关于微笑机器人的研究上个月发表在《细胞报告物理科学》杂志上。这代表了竹内及其实验室十年来如何最好地结合生物和人工机器的研究。

Living tissue is better for this application than metals and plastics, Takeuchi said. He noted that brains and muscles are more efficient in use of energy and the skin can repair itself.
竹内说，活体组织比金属和塑料更适合这种应用。他指出，大脑和肌肉的能量利用效率更高，而皮肤可以自我修复。

In the future, the researchers aim to add more elements to the lab-grown skin, including a circulatory system and nerves. That could lead to safer testing methods for cosmetics and drugs absorbed, or taken in, through the skin.
未来，研究人员计划在实验室培育的皮肤中添加更多元素，包括循环系统和神经。这可能会导致化妆品和通过皮肤吸收或摄入的药物的更安全的测试方法。

It could also produce more realistic and functional coverings for robots. The remaining issue is how people react to machines that appear almost lifelike, but do not look exactly like humans.
它还可以为机器人提供更逼真和功能性的覆盖物。剩下的问题是人们如何应对看起来几乎栩栩如生但不完全像人类的机器。

"There's still a bit of that creepiness to it," Takeuchi said about the robot.
竹内在谈到机器人时说：“它仍然有点令人毛骨悚然。”

He added, "I think that making robots out of the same materials as humans and having them show the same expressions might be one key to overcoming the uncanny valley."
他补充说：“我认为，用与人类相同的材料制造机器人并让它们表现出相同的表情，可能是克服恐怖谷的关键之一。”

The “uncanny valley” is an idea that relates to how humans react to robots or other machines that act like humans. “Uncanny” is an adjective that means “being beyond what is normal or expected.”
“恐怖谷”是一个与人类对机器人或其他像人类一样行动的机器的反应有关的概念。“Uncanny”是一个形容词，意思是“超出正常或预期的范围”。

Japanese robotics scientist Masahiro Mori published a work, Bukimi No Tani, or “Uncanny Valley” in 1970. It proposed how people would react to lifelike robots, or androids.
日本机器人科学家森政弘在1970年发表了一部作品《不気味の谷》，即“恐怖谷”。它提出了人们将如何对栩栩如生的机器人或人形机器人作出反应。

Mori thought that at first, people would have positive feelings about robots that look a little bit like humans. But as robots got closer to being realistic human models, he believed those feelings would become more negative.
森政弘认为，起初，人们对看起来有点像人类的机器人会有积极的感觉。但随着机器人变得更接近真实的人类模型，他认为这些感觉会变得更加负面。

Those negative feelings are the so-called low point, or “valley,” in a chart that represents the relationship between the human-like appearance of robots and humans’ feelings toward and acceptance of such robots.
这些负面情绪就是所谓的低点或“谷底”，在一个表示机器人类人外观与人类对这些机器人的感觉和接受度之间关系的图表中表现出来。