Face of the future

An artificial "thinking head," developed in part at Flinders University, will be on show in Beijing during the Olympic Games.

The artificial intelligence computer program is in its first year of development, but by the end of the five-year project it is expected to read lips, recognise faces, give emotional responses, hold conversations and teach foreign languages.
In Beijing, the animated head will be part of an art and technology exhibition by Melbourne performance artist Stelarc, whose face was used as a model for the program.

"It's part of his show, it's sort of like a ventriloquist's dummy -- he interacts with it and shows it off," said Associate Professor David Powers, head of Flinders Uni School of Informatics and Engineering Thinking Head research team. "He is looking at the way in which these technologies can affect people and the way they react to them."

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