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Face off: Realistic masks made in Japan find demand from tech, car companies

OTSU, Japan (Reuters) – Super-realistic hides of the smallest company in rural Japan will be in demand within the domestic tech and entertainment industries and from countries as a long way away as Saudi Arabia.

The 300,000-yen ($2,650) masks, produced from resin and plastic by five employees at REAL-f Co., seek to accurately duplicate an individual’s face-down to fine wrinkles and skin texture.

Company founder Osamu Kitagawa came up with the idea while working in a printing machine manufacturer.

But it took him eighteen months of experimentation before he found a means to use three-dimensional facial data from top quality photographs to help make the masks, and started selling them this year.

The company, perfectly located at the western prefecture of Shiga, receives about 100 orders year after year from entertainment, automobile, technology and security companies, mainly in Japan.

For example, a Japanese car company ordered a mask of an sleeping face to enhance its facial recognition technology to detect in case a driver had dozed off, Kitagawa said.

“I am proud that my product is helping further expansion of facial recognition technology,” he added.

“I hope that the developers would enhance face identification accuracy basic realistic masks.”

Kitagawa, 60, said he previously also received orders from organizations for this Saudi government to develop masks for your king and princes.

“I have been told the masks were for portraits to generally be displayed in public places,” he said.

Kitagawa said he works with clients carefully to be certain his products aren’t going to be utilized for illicit purposes and cause security risks, but added he cannot leave out such threats.

He said his goal ended up create Totally realistic masks, and he hoped to make use of softer materials, like silicon, later on.

“I’d like these masks for use for medical purposes, that is certainly possible as soon as they can be produced using soft materials,” he said.

“And since humanoid robots are being developed, I’m hoping this will help to developers to build (more realistic robots) with a affordable.”

(Reporting by Kwiyeon Ha; Editing by Malcolm Foster and Clarence Fernandez)

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