This engineer is building windows to the robotic soul

by Inken De Wit, 15 January 2020

The eyes, they say, are the window to the soul.

But what if there is no soul?

That is the problem that many robotics engineers face - humans expect to look into the eyes of other creatures. “Without eyes, humanoid robots or digital characters appear to be soulless,” says engineer Pascal Bérard.

Bérard is the co-founder of the 2019 ETH spin-off Animatico and spent his doctoral research exploring the creation of lifelike eyes for digital humans.

Eye viewing digital information, 3D illustration. Image: iStock

Humans have perfected their ability to recognize and read eyes through millions of years of evolution, so creating realistic eyes is a hugely challenging endeavour, says Bérard. It can be really off-putting if an eye doesn’t look or move as we expect it to. If human replicas look almost but not exactly like a real human, they fall into the so-called Uncanny Valley, described as early as 1970 by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori. They appear downright creepy, because we sense that something is wrong, even if we cannot define it.

There are two solutions to that problem: either we tackle the challenge of creating a perfect human replica or we simplify the avatars and robots to clearly communicate that they are not real humans. This has been done very successfully in animated movies and video games.

This expectation management is crucial, especially for robots or avatars that address humans or work closely with them. Various studies have shown, we expect robots to be welcoming, approachable, and show emotions. This is particularly important when it comes to caring for people or decision-making tasks such as investment advice. Meanwhile robots that help with chores like on the assembly line may have a machine-like appearance and clearly communicate that they are a machine.

With his company Animatico, Bérard is developing interactive digital characters that can be used in movies as much as in retail displays and interactive kiosks. His focus is realistic avatars with warm and expressive eyes for whose development he collaborates with scientists from ETH and Disney Research in Zurich. “Our characters are unique,” says Bérard. “They constantly react and interact verbally and non-verbally with the users, giving the impression that the characters are intelligent and have a life on their own and not least, have a soul.”