Joburg-based fashion designer Fred Eboka has dressed countless rich and famous humans, but now he can also add a robot to his client list.
Sophia the Robot, the world’s first humanoid citizen, wore a House of Eboka suit to the Davos of Human Capital 2019, held in Johannesburg this month.
Eboka embraced the challenge to dress the technological wonder that is Sophia, and created a suit that was part “space-age” but very much rooted
in South Africa, to show what an African humanoid of the future might wear.
“I believe that Sophia is the embodiment of human achievement in science and technology, giving us a way to dream of a future where intelligence is not constrained by the frailties of the human body,” says Eboka.
“I won’t be around long enough, but I am convinced that in future our species will share the planet with humanoids; and that Sophia is very much the uber-mother of these technological beings, who will form a powerful new race.
“It was thrilling to have the opportunity to create an outfit for her, allowing the House of Eboka to leave a footprint at such a pivotal moment in history.”
Sophia was very happy with her African couture look which, as Eboka told the conference audience, represents what he imagined the styling for an African humanoid may look like in a post Fourth Industrial Revolution future - functional, elegant and authoritative.
The suit with its floor-length tiered skirt was made of South African Shweshe in blue with yellow accent detail, referencing the styling of space-military uniforms and hand-beaded with larger and smaller
beads.
“Each shining bead is made of a chip that is linked to the others with electronic threads, representing the network of connectivity that may characterise this world of the future,” explained Eboka.
Sophia was created by Hanson Robotics, with AI (artificial intelligence) that allows her to recognise faces and understand human speech; so that she can hold a conversation, hold eye contact, show different facial expressions to show a range of emotions, and even crack jokes.
She has been granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia, and has featured in interviews with celebrities such as Will Smith.
Her creator, David Hanson, has drawn on many years working at Disney as a sculptor and filmmaker, to create a robot that is not only a four-dimensional interactive sculpture, but an approachable character.
Eboka says: “It was great to meet her, and she was an absolute pleasure to dress no diva behaviour at all!”
Any particular challenge in dressing a robotic form?
“Sophia doesn’t have the range of motion and flexibility in her shoulders and elbows that a human has, so we had to consider that, in order to make it easy to get her in and out of the jacket. “And because she doesn’t have legs, a floor-length skirt was chosen as the best option,” he says.
The one-day conference hosted by Duke Corporate Education saw over 500 senior leaders and HR professionals from across Africa coming together to explore the intersection of humanity and technology, and the future of work and leadership in a climate of unprecedented change and transformation.
Among the many speaker highlights was Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams who outlined the government’s various initiatives for enabling Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies.
Nedbank chief executive Mike Brown offered a unique perspective on how meaningful collaboration between humans and machines can influence better outcomes.