Overview

Furhat takes a fundamentally different approach from all other heads in this selection. Instead of stretching silicone skin over motors, the face is projected from inside onto a translucent mask. The company was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from KTH in Stockholm; the head is now the standard platform in research on human-robot interaction.

Construction

The device measures 41 by 27 by 24 centimeters with an eye height of approximately 30 centimeters and weighs 3.5 kilograms. Only the neck moves, with three degrees of freedom for nodding, rotation, and tilting, powered by three high-speed servos with metal gears and a resolution of 0.088 degrees. There is not a single actuator in the face. The mask is made of a proprietary polymer compound and can be exchanged magnetically; adult, child, and anime variants are offered. The head sits on a cylindrical housing with a ring of 88 RGB LEDs.

Technology and AI

Projection is via a DLP unit from Texas Instruments with 165 lumens at 1280 by 720 pixels. Perception includes an RGB camera with a 120-degree field of view, two MEMS microphones in the shoulders, and a supplied four-microphone array that hears up to five meters away and calculates direction and echo. Processing is handled by an Intel Core i5 with eight gigabytes of RAM. FurhatOS supports 120 languages and over 200 voices and can track up to ten people simultaneously. A virtual robot in the SDK allows development without hardware.

Market Significance

Furhat publishes prices openly: 35,000 US dollars for the standard version, 55,000 for premium, 120,000 for a lab package with three units, plus 6,000 per year for AI connectivity. The major advantage of projection lies in research: skin color, age, gender, and eye shape can be changed via software without touching the hardware. For studies on perception and bias, this is virtually irreplaceable.