Soseki Natsume is, for the Japanese, like a Dickens, a Proust or a Goethe for Westerners. Dead a century ago, Natsume will be resurrected as a robot android by teams of researchers in artificial intelligence from Nishogakusha University in Tokyo. His robot will give literature classes in high schools and universities and will be able to answer students' questions.
2016 will mark the hundredth anniversary of the death of Soseki Natsume and 2017, on 150e anniversary of his birth. What better time to bring back to life this author who is in the pantheon of Japanese literature. The author of I'm a cat or the Poor Heart of Men (ed. Gallimard), is considered to be the major writer of modern Japan. After teaching at universities for a long time, he ended up joining the editorial staff of the Asahi Shimbun, the major daily newspaper, a veritable institution in Japan. During his lifetime, he published a number of novels in the form of serials.
Ticket of 1000 ¥ in the effigy of Soseki Natsume
As a young man, Natsume had studied at Nishogakusha University. And that's where the idea of reviving this man of letters as a robot was born. An idea born from the meeting between the famous roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro and Fusanosuke Natsume, Soseki's grandson.
The intention of the project is technological but the academic and pedagogical aspect remains paramount. Teams of students from the university Tokyoite will conduct extensive research into the life and work of the great man. They will search for masses of information and anecdotes about his life, his encounters, his physical appearance, his tastes, his shortcomings and inclinations. In order to assist in this research, the Asahi Shimbun has opened its archives to access a considerable collection of images and works of his former employee.
Once all this information has been gathered, it will be the turn of the artificial intelligence and robotics specialists to play. In this case, A-Lab made itself famous by presenting its humanoid robot Asuna last year who will be running the operation. Specializing in humanoids that cry out for truth, A-Lab engineers are among the world's most advanced at reconstructing and animating a person in close detail. No doubt the Soseki robot will look remarkably similar.
READ IN UP' : Miraikan's android robots, truer than life...
In order to complete the reproduction, the voice itself will be produced from voice samples of Soseki Natsume's grandson.
Once completed, the Soseki robot will be able to embark on a cycle of conferences, debates and meetings that promise to be spectacular. The goal of the project's designers is clearly to bring the legacy of this monument of literature and the greatness of the country to the younger generations.
An initiative that will likely inspire others and promises some fine intellectual encounters with the authors of Le Lagarde and Michard, more real than life.
