Female face robot lit from behind to reveal the machinery beneath its skin. This machinery is used to change the contours of the robot's skin, creating facial expressions. It does this by using electric actuators which change their shape when an electric current is passed through them. The actuators are made from shape memory alloys, metals which are deformed easily when the current is on, but quickly return to their original shape when it stops. Using shape memory alloys ensures that expressions do not remain on the face for too long. The face was developed at the laboratory of Fumio Hara and Hiroshi Kobayashi at the Science University, Tokyo, Japan.