Freaky Robot Is a Real Einstein
怪异的机器人，真实的爱因斯坦
Albert Einstein is practically alive and smiling in the guise of a new robot that looks eerily like the great scientist and generates facial expressions that take robotics to a new level. "As far as we know， no other research group has used machine learning to teach a robot to make realistic facial expressions，" said Tingfan Wu， a computer science graduate student from the University of California， San Diego (UCSD).
阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦几乎复活了，这个新机器人的微笑表情让这个伟大的科学家活灵活现，该机器人产生的表情把机器人技术带到了一个新的水平。“据我们所知，还没有其他任何研究团队运用了机器学习能力，让一个机器人产生真实的脸部表情，”吴亭范说，他是加利福利亚大学圣地亚哥分校的一名计算机科学专业的研究生。
To teach this， the team connected tiny motors via strings to about 30 of the robot's facial muscles. Programmers then directed the Albert Einstein head to twist and turn its face in numerous directions， a process called "body babbling，" which is similar to the random movements that infants use when learning to control their bodies and reach for objects. The researchers made some video of robot's expressions that are disturbingly lifelike.
要能让机器人会笑，该研究团队得将微型马达通过导线连接到大约30块机器人的脸部肌肉。编程人员然后指挥这名阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦的头转动，脸部可以面向各种方向，这个过程被称作“body babbling“。（译者注：不理解这个机器人技术术语的确切含义），这个就像婴儿在学习控制他们的身体以接触一些物体时，产生的随机的运动动作。研究人员制作了一些机器人表情的视频，那些表情看上去跟真人极度的相似。
During body babbling， the Einstein robot could see itself in a mirror and analyze its movements using facial expression detection software created at UCSD and called CERT (Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox). The robot used this data as an input for its machine learning algorithms and created a map between its facial expressions and the movements of its muscle motors.
在”body babbling“过程中，爱因斯坦机器人能够通过一面镜子看到它自己，运用一个脸部表情检测软件分析它的运动，这个软件叫作CERT（计算机表情识别工具箱）由加利福利亚大学圣地亚哥分校发明。该机器人用这些数据作为其机器学习算法的输入数据，产生一个脸部表情和相应肌肉马达运动之间的信息存储分布图。
After creating the basic facial expression map， the robot learned to make new facial expressions — ranging from angry to surprised to sad — that it had never encountered before. For instance， the Einstein robot learned to narrow its eyebrows， where the inner eyebrows move together and upper eyelids close slightly
在产生基本脸部表情分布图后，机器人可以表达出新的脸部表情——从愤怒到惊讶到悲伤——这些以前还从来没有出现过。比如，爱因斯坦机器人收紧眉毛，就是让其两根眉毛内侧靠近，上眼睑轻微闭合。
The robot head probably isn't realistic enough to pass for a real-life Einstein， and the researchers noted that some of the robot's facial expressions are still awkward. The interactions between facial muscles and skin in humans are almost certainly more complex than their robotic model， Wu said. Currently， a trained person must manually configure the motors to pull the facial muscles in the right combinations so that the body babbling can occur. In the future， the team hopes to automate more of the process.
这个机器人的头部可能还不能像一个真实的爱因斯坦那样逼真，研究人员也指出该机器人的一些表情看起来还有一些笨拙。人类脸部肌肉和皮肤之间的互动远比他们的机器人模型复杂，吴亭范说。目前，一名经过训练的人还得手动配置马达，以使得脸部肌肉处于一个正确的配合状态，body babbling就能实现。该研究团体希望将来能自动实现该过程。
Still， the researchers hope their work will lead to insight into how humans learn facial expressions. The researchers admit that the body babbling method may not be the most efficient way for a robot to learn to smile and frown， so they are exploring other approaches too. "Currently， we are working on a more accurate facial expression generation model， as well as a systematic way to explore the model space efficiently，" Wu said.
此外研究人员希望，他们的工作能更好地理解人类脸部表情是如何实现的。研究人员承认”body babbling“可能不是最有效的方法，让机器人获得微笑和皱眉的表情，因此他们也在探索其他方法。”目前，我们正在研究一个更精确的脸部表情产生模式，以及一个让模型空间更为有效的系统方法，“吴亭范说道。
Wu's findings were presented on June 6 at the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning in Shanghai， China. Javier Movellan， director of UCSD's Machine Perception Laboratory， was the senior author on the presented research.
吴的探索已经发表于6月6日在中国上海召开的国际电气与电子工程师学会有关发展与学习技术的国际会议上。加利福利亚大学圣地亚哥分校机器感觉实验室的主任贾维尔·莫沃兰，是那篇在大会发言的研究论文的主要作者。
译者注：吴亭范2000至2004年就读于台湾国立大学。他的个人主页是
http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~t3wu/index.php