WT-4
In 2004, Waseda Universiy launched another improved version of its anthromorphic talking robot. It was dubbed as the Waseda Talker No. 4, or WT-4.
The creators of WT-4 were proud of the significant improvements included in this version of the celebrated talking robot. A total of 19 degrees of freedom are in effect in the robot’s vocal organs. This paved the way for the improvement in the way vowels and consonants are produced by the robot.
Elastic materials were used in the artificial lips and tongue to simulate the way a human tongue works. Other artificial organs, like the nasal cavity and soft palate, are constructed to move similar to human the human parts.
Apart from these structural changes, the mimicking mechanism of WT-4 makes it more advanced than the previous versions of the Waseda Talker robots. It is able to track the sounds produced by human speakers, then reproduced by the robot’s vocal mechanism. Fricative and plosive sounds are more distinguishable through the dynamically-controlled acoustic resonance. With these mechanisms in effect, WT-4 can repeat sentences continuously to make it a more fluent talking robot.
Features:
Waseda U.
