At the age of 42, Ma has realized his childhood dream – and that of many other adult males – by successfully constructing a life-sized robot from scratch on the balcony of his home. The robot’s official name is Mark 1, since Ma does not want to officially say he was inspired by Johansson
“I figured I should just do it when the timing is right and realize my dream. If I realize my dream, I will have no regrets in life,” Ma said to news agency Reuters. He had to become a maker and learn about fields completely new to him before he could build the complex gadget.
Scarlett-Mark 1 responds to a set of programed verbal commands spoken into a microphone. Besides simple movements of its arms and legs, turning its head and bowing, Ma’s robot, which has dark blonde hair and liquid eyes, and wears a gray skirt and cropped top, can create detailed facial expressions.
In response to the compliment, “Mark 1, you are so 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.”
It 3D printed skeleton lies beneath the silicone skin, wrapping its mechanical and electronic parts. “When you look at everything together, it was really difficult,” said Ma, who had to master unfamiliar topics from electromechanics to programing along the way, besides learning how to fit the robot’s external skin over its components. The real news, though, is that – as far out and expensive as Ma’s project may be – this would not have been possible just a couple of years ago.
