Toddler robot with realistic facial expressions

On which side of the ‘uncanny valley’ would you place the robotic child in the above video? Researchers at Osaka University are developing a robot in the form of a 1-to-2 year old child, with the idea that it should be so realistic that it will elicit natural responses from human caregivers, enabling studies of human social development that can’t otherwise be documented from the perspective of the child. For more information, see Automaton’s article and this paper by the researchers.

John Payne

John Payne