This Scarlett Johansson Robot is the Creepiest Thing Ever

The Mirror reports a 42 year-old man named Ricky Ma has built a $50,000 humanoid robot named Mark 1 from scratch. He’s not revealing the name of the Hollywood actress it was modeled after, but one look at the robot immediately gives it away: Scarlett Johansson. I would be curious to find out what Scarlett Johansson herself thinks of this robot lookalike. If I was the real Scarlett Johansson, I imagine it would be hard to go to sleep at night, knowing that a robotic doppelganger sits or stands somewhere in Hong Kong, eyes never shutting. Equally disturbing would be the idea of this lookalike robot responding to Ma’s incessant commands with a canned, programmed, “Hehe, thank you.” The future, er, the present, just got that much creepier.

Ricky Ma is a product and graphic designer and when he began building his robot, had no in-depth knowledge of coding, robotics or electromechanics. He taught himself everything about robot construction as he went along, which took about a year and a half. He admitted that it was incredibly difficult to build all the parts from scratch. Ma said,

      “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.'”


He built Mark 1 in near total isolation and told Yip he didn’t know anyone else who was currently building a robot in Hong Kong. He also told the Reuters journalist that few in his city understood his mission to build a robot. Ma admitted that he has been obsessed with building a robot since his childhood. He said he loved animation and cartoons as a child and never quite stopped loving them.

The humanoid robot’s silicone skin covers a 3D printed skeleton and 70% of the body was created using 3D printing technology. Mark 1 responds to a set of a programmed verbal commands that Ma speaks into a microphone. The robot can perform simple movements with its arms and legs, can turn its head and bow as well. Additionally, Mark 1 can create highly detailed facial expressions.