Terminator Tuesday (T2zday?): "I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over a metal endoskeleton."

This is cool.  Also disturbing.

Image and video are both from the original article HERE and are (I believe) covered by a CC BY-ND license (with attribution to Takeuchi et al.)...but if I'm wrong about that, please feel free to let me know!

I'm actually not sure if I was drawn to this story because of my recent fascination with the Terminator franchise...or if seeing this story tipped me into an Arnie-focused frenzy...but either way it's interesting to see where researchers at the University of Tokyo are in the quest to effectively attach skin to artificial subcutaneous structures.  Like...y'know, a metal endoskeleton.  They put skin onto a 3D facial mold.  And onto a 2D "facial robot."  And they made the robot smile.

I'm not even sure this is all in the realm of the uncanny valley yet, but the article is an interesting look at what seems to be a very trial-and-error-based development process that may one day give rise to the T-800.  If you're so inclined, you can find the original paper HERE and find quite a few mentions around the web (like NPR's summary HERE).

(And whaddaya know...Ross even referenced the Terminator in talking about today's team-up over at Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues!)

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And for extra fun, here's very quickly statted John Connor from T2 using the Big 4 stats I wrote about a couple weeks ago.  (He's built to about a Ghostbusters power level; I realize he's the savior of humanity, but he's probably a little more normal when he's still...what, 11 years old?)

From HERE

John Connor (ca. 1995...one version, at least)

Species: Human

Strength 2D
Dexterity 3D
Knowledge 3D
Perception 4D

Skills (+2): Hacking, Driving (motorcycle), Streetsmart, Command

Goal: Stay alive long enough to save humankind.