Katerine Kravtsova reports from Moscow’s “Robot Ball”:
Of all those at the ball, one of the most human-like is RoboThespian, a life-size humanoid robot created by British engineers to perform on stage and to provide guided tours in museums. Unlike robots like Cubic, designed for domestic servitude, RoboThespian is intended to entertain and educate. It can be controlled via an online interface from anywhere in the world, interact with humans independently by scouring the internet for answers to questions, recognise faces, sing and dance. The gracefully moving machine can be bashful, friendly or bored depending on the situation. It can even blush when an attractive woman walks past. “Android robots such as Thespian demonstrate well the full range of technologies available,” says [exhibition organizer Igor] Nikitin.
Although the technology is developing at a rapid pace, it’s still a long way off before robots will be able to develop and display emotions in the same way as humans. Last year, British scientists developed the Experimental Functional Android Assistant, or efAA, a socially intelligent humanoid that has been designed not only to recognise and respond to human emotion but also to develop empathy. “It’s quite possible to have robots that exhibit strong emotions,” says Ray Taylor, one of the exhibition’s organisers. “And it will be possible to teach robots to be able to identify human emotions in the future.”
The Dish 