Osaka:
Critics often criticise actors for behaving like robots, but what would they make of a robot performer?
Female android Germinal F has a starring role in a stage production developed by scientists at Osaka University.
She's a little too stiff for standard Hollywood close ups, but Geminoid F is taking the stage in her stride.
Sayonara is the 3rd in a series of plays starring robots, but Geminoid F is Osaka University's first acting humanoid.
Geminoid F is the brainchild of ART Intelligent Robotics and Communications Laboratories under the direction of Professor Ishiguro Hiroshi.
Professor Ishiguro says the aim wasn't simply to produce a play where an android performs a starring role, but to launch a broader inquiry into the very nature of human existence.
Ishiguro believes this is one of the greatest challenges he faces in his research into robotics.
The android is a remote controlled replica of a woman aged in her twenties. Cameras and tracking software are trained onto Geminoid F.
This is then relayed to an offstage actress who uses special equipment to replicate a range of different facial expressions.
The actress's voice is conveyed to the android through microphones and the effect on stage is eerily realistic.
Electronic signals move Geminoid F's mouth, creating the illusion of speech. Geminoid is unlike other more complex and expensive androids developed by Ishiguro in the past.
With her, Ishiguro is focussing on creating realistic facial expressions and the impression of human speech.
Below the neck there is no movement at all, meaning the android is unable to wave or walk.
Sayonara is a two-hander with American actress Bryerly Long sharing the billing with Geminoid F.
Long plays the role of a dying young woman who's left alone.
In the story her parents have bought an android to keep her company in her last hours.
Long says she initially found it challenging working with a non-human counterpart.
It's not really the same kind of interaction as you get with other actors, in terms of sort of looking into the person's eyes and having, sort of, responsive breath and the flexibility, she explains.
But it's very exciting as a new project to do theatre with robots and yes I've gotten used to it and really enjoy it.
Long explains how putting androids to work in hospitals is one potential real world application that researchers are considering for the future.
It's sort of exploring the fact that these robots they've obviously been designed for a purpose and they are thinking of using them in hospitals to do hospice care and in general to sort of talk to patients. So this is, sort of, looking at how people respond to the idea of having a robot talking to a dying person, she says.
The play is now due to move to Tokyo for a performance on November 11, after which there are plans for a possible performances in Austria.