Actroid F

The Human-Robotics Interaction 2012 conference takes place this week, offering a meeting ground for computer scientists and robot engineers to compare notes. As always, the challenge remains how to move their creations out of the labs and into the marketplace. After years of false starts, we may not be too far away from the day when these inventions truly become mainstream, as advances in the craft pave the way for a new generation of increasingly humanlike robots.

In the accompanying image, Actroid F from Tokyo entertainment firm Kokoro can move its eyes, mouth, head, and back. Cameras and face-tracking software follow a remote operator so facial expressions and head movements are reproduced in the robot in a master-slave relationship via Internet link.