The robotic female sage grouse can be quite the turn on for a hot blooded male (Image: Neil Losin)
In a corner of a laboratory in Sydney, Australia, a disembodied lizard tail is flicking. The tail is a three-dimensional animation on a screen, but the Jacky dragon facing the monitor clearly has no idea it doesn’t belong to a real lizard. Rooted to the spot, it slowly waves its arms in an effort to appease the animated figure.
This interaction between real and virtual Jacky dragon is part of a recent explosion in research using sophisticated animation and robotics to…
