Why couldn’t you just make a real-life Baymax from Big Hero 6? That would’ve been less frightening Disney. I know you should never judge a book by its cover and looks aren’t everything but this robot looks straight up from the Terminator movie and we all know how the robots there are. The only human features on this thing are the eyes and teeth.

Anyway, as first reported by Gizmodo, the robot was developed by engineers at Disney’s Research division, Walt Disney Imagineering, and robotics researchers from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the California Institute of Technology.

It can imitate human facial movements, specifically blinking and subtle head movements. There appears to be no camera or sensor in the robot’s eyes yet as there’s a sensor attached to its chest area. The sensor allows the robot to be alert when to turn and face a person in front of it, and its eye movements shift from direct eye contact to the rapid eye movements known as saccades.

To make it even more creepy, it also moves slightly up and down to mimic breathing. It’s breathing? Yikes. Nope. I’m out. I know robots are the future and we’re going towards AI but I gotta be honest, AI robots do scare me even though I support good AI robots in movies.

“Gaze has been shown to be a key social signal, shaping perceptions of interaction partners. For example, people who make more eye contact with us are perceived to be similar to us, as well as more intelligent, conscientious, sincere, and trustworthy. Furthermore, gaze appears to also convey complex social and emotional states,” said the Disney Research team on their papers, Realistic and Interactive Robot Gaze.

This isn’t the first time Disney tried out this type of technology. In 2018, the company unveiled its Stickman robot that could do backflips in mid-air, “to approximate the height of a human stunt performer with arms raised over his or her head.”

I’m gonna take a guest that this robot could be use as an attraction for Disneyland. That would make sense since there’s a lot of animatronic characters on the rides there. And when the human characters are on a break of off duty, why not use the Robots dressed as the characters to interact with the guests?

In 2018, Disney unveiled its Stickman robot that could do backflips in mid-air, “to approximate the height of a human stunt performer with arms raised over his or her head.”

I just hope that once their research and robot improves, they will add skin to the robots to make it more….family friendly. Unless they’re planning on using it for the Pirates of the Caribbean or Haunted Mansion ride then by all means, go right ahead.