One man built a robot that looks eerily similar to Scarlett Johansson

There are plenty of humanoid robots in the world, sure, but most of them look like murderous Terminator droids. 

Exhibit A: The Atlas robot from Boston Dynamics.

Boston Dynamics

Yes, that is an autonomous humanoid robot walking through the woods outside of Boston.

One man, however, dreamed of a more human-looking droid — one that looks, curiously enough, almost exactly like Scarlett Johansson. 

Exhibit B: the Scarlett Johansson robots, created by Hong Kong native Ricky Ma.

REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Whoa indeed. Here’s how he did it.

“When I was a child, I liked robots,” Ma told Reuters. “Why? Because I liked watching animation. All children loved it. There were Transformers, cartoons about robots fighting each other and games about robots.”

“After I grew up, I wanted to make one,” he said. “But during this process, a lot of people would say things like, ‘Are you stupid? This takes a lot of money. Do you even know how to do it? It’s really hard’.”

The robot reportedly took about 1.5 years to build. Its face is, by far, the most realistically rendered part of the robot.

Over 1.5 years and $50,000 later, Ma realized his goal. It probably doesn’t hurt that he’s an industrial designer.

Much of its body is made up of 3D-printed parts, like its skeleton.

It’s more than just a pretty face and…skeleton: Ma’s robot can respond to a selection of voice commands.

He dubs the robot “mark 1,” as it’s his first prototype. Here are just some of the voice commands he can issue.

According to the Reuters report, ScarJo’s robotic doppelgänger can also respond to voice.

When the robot is told it’s beautiful, “its brows and the muscles around its eyes relax, and the corners of its lips lift, creating a natural-seeming smile, and it says, ‘Hehe, thank you.’”

Ma’s dog doesn’t seem to know what to do about its owner’s new robot friend.

Watch out for those robot feet, little dog!

About 70% of the robot’s body is composed of 3D printed materials. This pile of 3D printed skeletons attests to the number of iterations that Ma went through.

Robo ScarJo (RoboJo?) still requires some help standing, as seen here.

But Ma is clearly happy with his first prototype. It’s not clear where the project will go next, but we imagine it could involve hearing from a certain Hollywood star’s legal representatives.

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