A product and graphics designer in Hong Kong has realized a childhood dream by creating a life-sized humanoid robot.
It winks, speaks in English, responds to commands and flexes its arms and hands.
And it was built from scratch.
Ricky Ma grew up watching cartoons featuring robots and dreamed of building his own one day.
He recently debuted his own robot prototype, which he calls the Mark One.
It’s modeled after a Hollywood star whose name he is keeping a secret.
Ma built the robot on the balcony of his home. It took about a year and a half and cost him $50,000.
Ma made about 75 percent of the parts using a 3D printer, and many of them look like real human bones.
Mark One is programmed to respond to verbal commands.
Although its movements are a bit robotic, some of the facial expressions are amazingly life-like.
Ma says creating the robot involved a lot of trial-and-error work, but he has no regrets. He hopes an investor will buy his prototype, giving him the capital to build more.
