It was one of the most striking inventions of the last Consumer Electronics Show, the electronics fair held at the beginning of the year in Las Vegas. The Russian company Promobot showed a robot with a touch screen that in its upper part incorporated a bust of Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger dressed in a leather jacket, as in the Terminator movie.
The robot had been called ‘Robo-C’ and its manufacturer had designed it as a kind of smart speaker capable of connecting to some objects in the house and controlling them through commands. Its price would amount to about $ 25,000 and the grace of the invention is that it is possible to customize it in the image and likeness of anyone, hence its high cost.
However, the actor would not have been too happy for the company to use his image to promote its product. That is why he has decided to sue her. His attorney, Martin Singer, has asked the company for damages in the amount of more than $ 10 million .
It seems that Schwarzenegger had already learned that Promobot was using his face when he was asked to pose next to the robot in St. Petersburg. The actor and politician refused to do the photo shoot and sent a cease & desist letter to the manufacturer. At that time he was asking them for $ 30 million in exchange for agreeing to give up his face as an image for his Robo-C . However, the Russian company would have ignored the notice, taking the representation of the Hollywood star to CES.
In the letter the lawyer compares the case with another of Priscilla Presley. Here he assures that “in a situation like this, in which you have exploited the photo of one of the most successful and renowned stars in the world of cinema around the world, without his knowledge or authorization, the damages estimated in the trial would increase exponentially. ”. In addition, he explains that they had initially agreed to stop using the robot , something that they did not comply with.
On its website the manufacturer no longer shows any image or reference to the model that has Schwarzenegger’s face. Most of the images are of a version with Albert Einstein’s face.
Robo-C can have anyone’s face
On its website the Promobot company insists that it is capable of creating robots with the face of any person. “Robo-C is a humanoid robot that can communicate with people, express emotions and connect with third-party applications and services. He looks just like any human on Earth, regardless of gender, age or nationality, ”he explains.
“The fall of Robo-C can show more than 600 variants of human facial expressions : the robot can move its eyes, eyebrows, lips, neck and facial muscles,” he adds.
Promobot’s invention can recognize and remember faces, communicate and answer questions, act as a hub for connected devices and objects, connect to external systems and services, scan and fill out documents, and more.
The robot can be used for events, fairs, museums, as a hostess for companies, etc.
