Black Widow Fantasy Comes To Life! Fan Successfully Builds Scarlett Johansson Robot — Is This Creepy Or Amazing?
It has been one of the dreams of Black Widow fans to have their date night with the Marvel superhero. Though virtual reality is on the rise nowadays, robotics still has a more realistic interaction since they can produce physical bodies.
Fortunately, this 42-year-old product- and graphic-designer was able to make this dream come true. Avenger’s female lead Scarlett Johansson now has a live robot version of herself. Creator Rick Ma had spent over $50,000 just to create his masterpiece, according to Mirror.
Rick Ma admitted that he has an obsession in humanoids. At the same time, he said that he modeled his design to the Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson.
“When I was a child, I liked robots. Why? Because I liked watching animation. All children loved it. There were Transformers, cartoons about robots fighting each other and games about robots.”
When he grew up, robotics had become one of his passions. He researched and studied the craft because he really wanted to create one.
“After I grew up, I wanted to make one. But during this process, a lot of people would say things like, ‘Are you stupid? This takes a lot of money. Do you even know how to do it? It’s really hard.'”
Though it was not easy for Rick Ma to complete this project, he was able to produce a fairly advanced Scarlett Johansson robot. The robot can do arm and leg movements and its head can turn sideways. It can also bow.
Rick Ma’s Scarlett Johansson robot can respond to a set of programmed verbal commands. Anyone can speak these commands in a microphone and the robot will be able to respond. It can also respond with facial expressions. At one point during his demo, he was even able to make the robot wink.
The Scarlett Johansson robot’s features are very close to real thing. It has a blonde, curly hair with hazel eyes. Looking at a distance, one could mistake Rick Ma’s robot as the real Scarlett Johansson.
The robot, which he calls Mark 1, is dressed in a white crop top that reveals the belly. It also wears a long grey skirt.
Mark 1 also has interesting responses. When Rick Ma said, “Mark 1, you are so beautiful,” the robot bowed its head and created a facial expression the featured the eyes smiling. It then responded with, “Hehe, thank you.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL_tZxRqIys
Rick Ma took advantage of the 3D technology to create 70 percent of Mark 1’s body. Rick Ma encountered a lot of mistakes during his creation of the Scarlett Johansson robot. At one point, he had struggled to make the robot stand up straight.
“When I started building it, I realized it would involve dynamics, electromechanics and programming. I have never studied programming, how was I supposed to code?”
Rick Ma added that he needed to build 3D models for all the inside parts of the robot.
“Also, I had to make sure the robot’s external skin and its internal parts could fit together. When you look at everything together, it was really difficult.”
After all the hardships, Rick Ma was able to create his ideal Scarlett Johansson robot. At the end of it all, he said he had finalized his dream and he had no regrets.
Rick Ma said that humans are only beginning to develop the robotics science. He said that robots will be able to improve humans’ way of life. As a robot creator, he hopes that the demand for robots only continues to grow.
As for his Scarlett Johansson robot, he hopes for an investor to buy the prototype from him so he can have more capital to continue his venture.
[Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Getty Images]
