University's Morgui robot deemed too scary for kids

Terrifying robots most certainly aren't anything new, and be it frightening or downright creepy, there's probably a bot out there weird enough to freak just about anyone out. Enter Morgui, the University of Reading-based robot that has been around for some time, but is just now getting the credit a bizarre skull that follows humans around should. The creation, which consists of a disembodied head, oversized blue eyes, and a classically evil grin, has been officially banned from testing around anyone under the age of 18 (permission notwithstanding) by the school's ethics and research committee, leaving the "Magic Ghost" to spook only mature audiences from here on out. Mo, as it's so aptly nicknamed, sports a metal head, the ability to detect visual / auditory cues, and sensors for radar, infrared, and ultrasonic detection as well, but oddly enough, it cannot detect human emotion, so you better not count on this fellow to have sympathy on your soul when you're screeching. The purpose of the machine is to judge how "people react to robots," and when the bot just so happens to lack any form of facial covering beyond a skeletal structure, we're sure the reactions are quite noticeable.

[Via CollisionDetection]

[Matt @ Jan 16th 2007 10:10AM]

Terminator FTW?

[Nicolas Ortiz @ Jan 16th 2007 10:11AM]

lol

[ANDRE R. @ Jan 16th 2007 10:10AM]

Its the terminator!

[Matt B @ Jan 16th 2007 10:14AM]

It's always amazing to me how people are scared of something every human has. Society has become a bitchy, wimpy mess.

[Don @ Jan 16th 2007 10:30AM]

"It's always amazing to me how people are scared of something every human has. Society has become a bitchy, wimpy mess."

Agreed. Strangely, when "The Terminator" came out I was fairly young (11) and I thought it was just about the coolest thing ever. What has happened to us? Ugggh. Under *18*? WTF?

By the Way, Morgui - you're beautiful. Don't ever change.

[Corporate @ Jan 16th 2007 10:15AM]

When I first saw it I literally said to myself:

"WTF TERMINATOR!?"

[Regula Oblique @ Jan 16th 2007 10:18AM]

Put some skin on it!

[MikeL @ Jan 16th 2007 10:18AM]

According to the link, wasn't the original article written in 2003?

[Mark @ Jan 16th 2007 10:31AM]

Oh come on... this seems like an ideal way to teach children to respect technology. A little paralyzing terror never hurt anyone.

Seriously though, most kids I know would probably think this thing is cool.

[sntXrrr @ Jan 16th 2007 10:41AM]

"It doesn't know pity or remorse and it absolutely will not stop until you are dead."

[Brian @ Jan 16th 2007 11:06AM]

Maybe I will pick up one of those new tasers...

[John Stracke @ Jan 16th 2007 10:46AM]

If you want to research how people react to robots, maybe you should make a robot that doesn't skew the results in favor of total pants-wetting terror.

[kerunt @ Jan 16th 2007 11:21AM]

As long as none of the kids are named "John Connor" everyone should be fine...

[timetex @ Jan 16th 2007 11:43AM]

I, for one, welcome our terrifying, white-skulled robotic overlords. No, really I do!

[marshall @ Jan 16th 2007 1:06PM]

i swear that's a t-100, there's even a gap in the side for its neural net processor ...

[Evan @ Jan 16th 2007 1:23PM]

It looks less scary than
http://www.engadget.com/2005/06/11/kicking-it-in-the-uncanny-valley/
or
http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/05/uncanny-valley-2-hello-kitty-edition/
I mean, at least you can see the plastic parts so you know right away that it's a just robot, unlike those other robots.

[s i d @ Jan 16th 2007 1:43PM]

true metal head \m/

[bill @ Jan 16th 2007 1:47PM]

but why the teeth? wouldn't a couple minor tweaks to the look make it less ahhnold-ish?

[KYXX @ Jan 16th 2007 2:06PM]

I go to Reading Uni, but I do Electronic Engineering, not Cybernetics, so no robots for us.
The one who built this, Kevin Warwick, is one of my lecturers. He's the dude who put a chip in his arm, attached to his nervous system, and then controlled a robot arm remotely.

[Alex` @ Jan 16th 2007 2:55PM]

I'm also at Reading University, and Mo currently occupies the corner of the room I'm working on my third year robots (he doesn't look quite as cool when he's turned off, which is unfortunately most of the time). I thought this was really old news though! Also, Kevin Warwick is a legend.

[luke @ Jan 16th 2007 7:21PM]

I was at reading uni, and yes this is old old news. It's quite weird having it follow you around (well the head). If i remember right the guys who built it bought the skull off ebay and modded it to fit the electronic gizmos inside.

[EdZ @ Jan 17th 2007 8:00AM]

I too am at reading uni, though I don't usually use the lab Morgui is in. The warning notice on the door is good for a laugh though.

[whiskey @ Jan 17th 2007 7:16PM]

Oh for crying out loud! Johnny 5 didn't had any skin and people reacted (mostly) good towards it. Nobody seems to be scared when watching C3PO naked. This is one of those "Why, oh, why would they do that" studies, mostly because we all know how the Terminators are going to look like.

By the way, we react like that because of the primordial instincts, being that if you happen to encounter a decaying corpse it is most likely to have lots of diseases and bacteria and such that, albeit with time, could render you dead as well. So as a mechanism of protection, we tend to at least step back (unless you are desensibilitized, e.g. by watching such great movies as Cannibal Holocaust while eating breakfast).

:P