My Girlfriend in Walk is one of those proposals that is difficult to understand and at the same time makes sense, because what it proposes is nothing other than allowing not to feel alone while walking. How? Well, through a robotic hand designed by a group of Japanese engineers that simulates that a woman is holding your hand.
A robotic hand to simulate a woman shaking hands
Robotics, as with everything related to the use of artificial intelligence, is one of the fields that has evolved the most in recent years. Although before they were somewhat crude proposals both in design and movements, now it could be said that behaviors that little differ from what any of us as human beings could do.
In terms of movements, we have already seen multiple demonstrations of Atlas, the Boston Dynamics robot. This one is not only capable of walking or running, it is also capable of jumping and even doing parkour. Then there are other proposals such as the most recent one that we have seen from Disney Research and that offers a robot capable of blinking and gesturing like a human.
However, this proposal from a group of Japanese engineers is somewhat different. In principle because it is not only a robotic hand, but one that simulates the hand of a woman. Hence the name My Girlfriend in Walk , although it could perfectly have been that of a man and change the name to Boyfriend. Because the basic idea would not change anything.
With this hand what they seek is to offer the feeling of company when walking. Yes, we admit that it is a bit strange, but sometimes that simple gesture can mean a lot to some people who are alone on a daily basis or for much of the day.
To resemble the real feel of holding someone else’s hand, this robotic hand is constructed of a flexible material that simulates skin . This contains a series of pores that together with the use of other components is capable of modifying the temperature to convey a greater sense of realism.
Along with all this, the hand has articulated fingers so that the grip can also be felt and as an icing on the cake, the hand is scented.
The future is less science fiction
My Girlfriend in Walk is still a proposal whose real implementation will go much further than simply carrying that hand attached to your own arm and with the aim of feeling less only when you walk. The advances that are made now will mark the future of the robots that will be created and will bring that science fiction world that we see in series and cinemas closer to the real world.
What will be curious is to see how all these issues will be accepted. To what extent 10, 15, 20 or 50 years from now walking with a robot down the street holding hands will be accepted. Something that we assume will happen, in the same way that we accept as normal to see people talking on the street while walking thanks to the use of hands free. Of course, as long as you can, you better hold the hand of a real person.