Creepy disembodied robot mouth

Robotic mouth recites vowels, but doesn't seem too happy about it. (Via Robert Popper)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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adwkiwi

He’s a smee.

He’s a smeeeeeeeeeeee.

He’s a smeeeeeeeee.heeeeeeeeee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXKlC8ph7mM
Stefan Jones

That disturbed my dog. She got up and stared at my laptop until it stopped.
Anonymous

obligatory video link:

http://www.spike.com/video/aeiou-sometimes-y/2794312
Goofball Jones

OMG…nightmares tonight for sure.
johnny payphone

That horrific prototype blowjob machine hits rock bottom of the uncanny valley.
Anonymous

“Gimme back that Filet-O-Fish! Gimme that fish!”
Loafer

That’s funny, I hear the same noises when I see a politician’s lips move.
it must have been an early prototype.
Mitch

This is kind of interesting. What is the purpose of this? Is it to study phonology and experiment with different ways of forming sounds?

If the goal is to make a talking robot it would be a lot easier to play digital samples of syllables while the robot’s mouth lip-synchs the sounds.
Anonymous

Nightmare City, here I come. Christ.
Darcy Casselman

It’s a creepy *Japanese* robot mouth. Should have known, really.

Japanese vowel sounds, in order: ah ee oo eh oh.
Paulwh80

Reminds me of the annoying orange…
jokel

That’s actually the precursor to one of the Cameron prototypes.
Anonymous

And this is what happens when it meets the Trololo guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtQXHY2JbjE
Sork

Now imagine that mouth in this head
http://www.gizmodo.fr/savedfiles/cb204.jpg
mounted on the body of big dog
http://metamodern.com/b/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/big_dog.jpg

It would rule the uncanny valley.
grundie

Wow, Creature Comforts has got really weird as of late.
Gryffinator63

You wouldn’t be happy either if you suffered from the heartbreak of grouper face.
Sekino

Great. A robot that sounds just like Kanye West.
oasisob1

My guess is a computer controls the mouth, makes sounds, and ‘listens’ with the microphone for a particular sound it wants. It’s learning how to speak with the equipment it has…

But it’s creepy to watch.
nprnncbl

Wintermute.
Anonymous

It sounds like it’s trying to pronounce am “Au” sound. Wonder why they invented it?
avraamov

von kempelen cracked this one waaaay back…

http://klangmaschinen.ima.or.at/db/pv.php?id=2011&lang=de&table=Object
Anonymous

Is anyone here familiar with Samuel Beckett’s one-act play, “Not I”? What a perfect production could be staged with this technology!
Ugly Canuck

Someday perhaps, a programmable alarm clock in a sculpted head, to literally nag the kids awake using mom/dad ‘s own voice and visage – perhaps reading reminders from an agenda or daytimer every morning, with appropriate parently comments added from a stock menu.
Anonymous

Maybe I’ve done too many language development and cognitive science courses, but this video struck me as way cool and not at all creepy.
Anonymous

no tongue??
upso

JesÃºs Cristo!
grimc

Yip yip yip yip.
- Anonymous
  
  uh-huh. uhh-huh.
- dculberson
  
  Uhhh-huh! uhhhh-HUH!
Anonymous

I hear their goal is to eventually get it to say “Aphex”.
Anonymous

It’ll never get good vowels without the shape of a human mouth, a lower location of the larynx, and a proper tongue. Obstruents would then be possible as well but you’d never get the n, m, and ng sound because you need the nasal cavity for that…

*sigh*
Xenu

No thanks, I prefer a Fleshlight that doesn’t talk.
- arikol
  
  WHAT?
  
  But think of the possibilities of a fleshlight that CAN talk. And wiggle a bit. Mmmmmmm
  - Xenu
    
    That’s called a “girlfriend.”
omnivore

Beckett was there first.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNti7qCn-kg&feature=player_embedded
spocko

What? No sometimes “Y”? Stupid robot.
littlebone

The San Francisco Exploratorium has a much less creepy vowel exhibit. Unless lucite creeps you out.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/vocal_vowels/vocal_vowels.html
Will Davis

My Lord!!! I have always wondered what Buckethead looked like under his mask!
Anonymous

You know the only reason they put the nose on there is so it won’t look quite so much like a vagina.
sapere_aude

Let’s be honest: If you were nothing but a mouth, and your only talent was reciting vowels, would YOU be happy about it?
Capissen

Paging Chris Cunningham!