'Human uber' lets you pay someone to live your life for you

A new "human Uber" could let you pay someone to live your life for you.

Japanese researcher Jun Rekimoto has developed a special screen that can be strapped to a person's face and allow them to live on your behalf. By dressing up as you and having your face shown where theirs usually is, you'll be able to pay someone to go about your life instead.

The technology is aimed at allowing someone – a "surrogate" – to live your life for you, wearing your clothes and behaving on your instruction. You, on the other hand, would be able to lounge at home, watching events through your laptop and using its camera to communicate with people your surrogate meets.

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2/43 A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Images

3/43 A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Images

4/43 Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

5/43 Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

6/43 The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

7/43 Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

8/43 Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex

9/43 Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex

10/43 A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters

11/43 A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters

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20/43 Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03' Reuters

21/43 Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Reuters

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23/43 The interior of Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Reuters

24/43 Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 Reuters

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39/43 The robot developed by Seed Solutions sings and dances to the music during the Japan Robot Week 2016 at Tokyo Big Sight. At this biennial event, the participating companies exhibit their latest service robotic technologies and components Getty

40/43 The robot developed by Seed Solutions sings and dances to music during the Japan Robot Week 2016 at Tokyo Big Sight Getty

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43/43 Flight Simulator Stefan Schwart and Udo Klingenberg preparing a self-built flight simulator to land at Hong Kong airport, from Rostock, Germany EPA

"To do this, a surrogate user wears a mask-shaped display that shows a remote user’s live face, and a voice channel transmits a remote user’s voice," a page describing the tool, known as ChameleonMask, reads. "A surrogate user mimics a remote user by following the remote user’s directions.

"This design is based on our hypothesis assuming physical and social telepresence can be embodied by such a surrogate human who imitates the remote user."

Such telepresence systems have been developed before. But they have mostly been mounted on robots, which the person talking could then drive around, giving the feeling of being in the office, conference or other space that can only be joined over the internet.

In contrast, the ChameleonMask appears to give a more complete experience, with the screen being carried around by a person who can also be dressed the same as the user might be. The experience is much better than those robots, its creator claims.

"It also eliminates many difficulties of teleoperated robots wandering in the environment," the page describing the innovation claims. Experiments have shown that people are able to think of the surrogate as the real person, it also claims.

Though the mask has been described as "human Uber", it's actually far more involved than that. Rather than transporting something, the person is required to live as you and behave on your instruction.

It was shown off this week at the EmTech conference, where a user tweeted a picture of the strange contraption that was later shared by tens of thousands of people.

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