Hong Kong's Ricky Ma Builds Creepy Lookalike Scarlett Johansson Robot From Scratch

Ricky Ma, a Hong Kong man who's presumably seen Spike Jonze's Oscar-winning film, Her, too many times, has become a viral sensation after building a robot based on the likeness of the sci-fi movie's star, Scarlett Johansson, who voiced Samantha. Working for 18 months, Ma built the creepiest robot you've seen based on the Black Widow actress.

According to The Mirror, Ma, 42, spent a year and a half of his life and $50,000 to create Mark 1 from scratch, a female robot prototype he built to pursue his lifelong dream -- and in the meantime, he took advantage of the situation and happened to make it look like the Avengers star.

Though Ma admitted he'd built the robot to look like a Hollywood actress, he didn't specify it was Johansson, though the similarity is obvious enough, even if it's not an uncanny resemblance.

In any case, Ma's feat building Mark 1 isn't only impressive in itself, but also because he completely lacks any background in robot technology, as his profession is actually graphics design. He has no formal training in programming or electromechanics, so it says a lot about his drive to fulfill his lifelong dream that he was actually able to make this from scratch.

About 70% of Mark 1's body was made using 3D-printing technology and among the things it can do are move its arms and legs, turn its head, bow and do more complex face gestures. It can also talk, and when Ma talks to it through a microphone, it can respond to compliments.

Reuters reports that, when he began his new project of building a robot from scratch, it was hard for him to find support from others, as he didn't know anyone else in Hong Kong who built them as a hobby and he was criticized for trying something too big for him to handle.

You can watch Mark 1 at work on the clip below.