Hanson Robotics, led by David Hanson, has been working on an animatronic version of Einstein's head in cooperation with UCSD for years — reminding us of the head-in-a-jar future we're all destined for in Futurama — and the latest iteration of the 'bot shown off at this year's TED Conference is the most expressive yet. The resurrected scientist features a layer of artificial skin called Frubber (complete with nanometer-sized pores) stretched over a frame powered by 31 motors to cycle it through expressions.

It's this ability to emote that has the researchers at UCSD interested in how Einstein's head would interact with a classroom full of high schoolers, which they plan to stick it in. Einstein also has the ability to pick out facial features and react to them, spotting anything from a pair a glasses, to how youthful someone looks.

Click Continue to see a video of ol' Einstein in action.

Mail Online, via Gizmo Watch