Boffins develop 'sociable' robots

Irish scientists are working on a way to make robots more 'human' so that people will be able to relate to them more naturally.

The first prototype, dubbed Anthropos, has cameras for eyes, a speaker as a mouth and motors that control how it moves.

Brian Duffy, of MediaLab Europe in Dublin, said that the robot makes gestures, moves around and understands what is said to it.

Duffy told the BBC that the project aims to use artificial intelligence to create a robot that is friendly and sociable, so that people 'forget' they are talking to a machine.

The robot is able to handle basic 'yes' or 'no' questions, and the team have found that people will often start reacting to the robot and giving it human qualities.

In the BBC interview Anthopos said: "I'm trying to get more people to believe in me. I am thinking of getting some glasses.

"It would make me look more intelligent. Do you think I should wear such glasses? Would I look better with blue hair or red hair?"

However, the robot ignored many of the questions put to it.

The speech recognition system is based around Carnegie Mellon University's Festival software.

Anthopos's 'nervous system' is based on Firewire computer technology, and it has a high-speed data transfer network throughout.

Unfortunately the MediaLab team's attempts to get robots to feel emotions have only managed to create vampire machines that are afraid of the light.