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The BBC has harnessed the power of AI to build its most advanced animatronic spy creature allowing decoy monkeys to interact with other real primates in the wild.
A new series called Spy in the Troop, will see the man-made models of animals including a Tamarin and a Macaque, engaging with living members of their species.
The animatronic creatures, which have a camera in one eye and computer behind the other, use AI computer learning techniques to ‘enhance’ their ‘ability to communicate’.
Through the technology it will be able to ‘use the same calls and facial expressions as the primates they encounter’.
The BBC has previously used the ‘Spy Creatures’ concept – using animatronic animals – in natural history programmes such as Spy In The Ocean and Spy in the Wild.