Soseki android unveiled to rekindle interest in late author

“Hello. Excuse me for remaining seated. It’s been nearly 100 years, hasn’t it?”

So said an android version of literary giant Natsume Soseki in a calm voice when it was unveiled to the media in Tokyo on Thursday.

The robot, dressed in a light brown tweed suit and leather shoes and sporting the writer’s trademark mustache, is the work of Nishogakusha University in Tokyo, which collaborated with robotics researcher Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University.

The researchers hope the seated 130-cm figure, based on Soseki’s appearance at age 45, will not only revive the memory of the author who died on Dec. 9, 1916, but also ignite literary interest in him among young students.

This year marks the centennial of the death of the novelist, who studied Chinese literature at the private university in Tokyo in 1881.

To make the android appear as real and lifelike as possible, the researchers scanned the novelist’s death mask to create a 3-D image of his face. The mask is owned by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which published “Kokoro” and other works of fiction that Soseki penned for the daily.

In a demonstration session, the “special professor” recited parts of his lesser known work “Ten Dreaming Nights,” released in 1908. It also “chatted” according to a pre-programmed script with a moderator on stage, speaking and moving as if alive.

hitech.newsru.com