[Freddy]

A humanoid robot able to recognise and interact with people has been demoed at an electronics fair in Hong Kong. The robot head, called Han, uses an array of cameras and voice recognition technology to 'see' people and have conversations with them.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-04/21/han-realistic-humanoid-robot-video

[Don Patrick]

Hanson robotics does impressive work. Props for the skin on the neck, the mouth movement, and the seemingly impeccable voice recognition, but the head, neck and eyes still move like a theme park robot.
I wonder how it visually distinguishes gender, and if they did any of the computer vision software themselves or whether they just put it in.

Also, a man's head on a naked transparent humanoid body is... not the way I would display my tech if I wanted people to be comfortable with it.

[Art]

But doesn't the term "humanoid" denote that which is in the shape and general appearance of a human but the underlying structure is that of an electro-mechanical skeleton?

Which would be your method of "showcasing" your creation if it were yours?

Completely covered with pseudo-skin to completely resemble a human?
Completely devoid of any skin-like covering thus exposing the skeletal structure, wires, servos,etc.?

Just curious.

I originally thought Hanson's Einstein/Spaceman was quite a reach. His research and development of Frubber is quite an accomplishment but somehow the combination of the head of one with the body of a spaceman, somehow seemed "thrown together" just to make a presentation.

Perhaps a completely skin covered android might hit too close to home for people fearing an actual Terminator being!

[Don Patrick]

Personally, I would design a metal or plastic body that simply did not resemble a re-animated dead person's remains. Not exposing the inner structure at all, but not naked skin either. Plastic or metal skin and at least partially clothed, more like, or in a space suit. In this case of course, the purpose is to convince people of the lifelike-ness of Hanson's frubber and animatronics. He made a clothed replica of a Philip K. Dick which was decent enough despite wires sticking out of the back of its head (It still went with the headlines "Freaky robot" though).

I assumed the Einstein on Asimo body was done for laughs, because the proportions were completely off balance. One design that I really liked was the first generation Zeno, a small robot who was clearly designed by a graphics artist of the manga community, whose facial animation resembled Disney. Their later version on the other hand resembled a clay hand puppet with bulging spherical eyes without eyelids...
Oh well, that's why I'm an artist and not a roboticist, and vice versa.