Smiling robot face is made from living human skin cells

The work could also have surprising benefits for the cosmetics industry. In an experiment, the researchers made the small robot face smile for one month, finding they could replicate the formation of expression wrinkles in the skin, says Kawai.

“Being able to recreate wrinkle formation on a palm-sized laboratory chip can simultaneously be used to test new cosmetics and skincare products that aim to prevent, delay or improve wrinkle formation,” says Kawai, who performed the work while at the University of Tokyo.

Oh hey, that's actually really neat! This seems like it could extend beyond just cosmetics and apply to dermatology as a whole. Test if various medicines cause any physical effects to skin and such.

Also: wow that "3D head shape covered in living skin" is uncanny valley hell. Even the first pic gave me chills. The skin is just so... shiny and moist looking...

That face exceeded my expectations by miles. What a majestic blob.

“The [...] absence of blood vessels to supply nutrients and moisture means it cannot survive long in the air,” he says. “To address these issues, incorporating neural mechanisms and perfusion channels into the skin tissue is the current challenge.”

They could also have a sycophantic crony follow it around with a moisturizer spritzer so that it can attend fashionable parties like the day the sun swallows the Earth.

Jesus this is terrifying. I'd much rather talk to a cute looking robot like WALL-E than one that looks human. I really don't get the point of this.