KOBIAN is a humanoid robot created by researchers from Waseda University along with robot manufacturer tmsuk. The robot uses its entire body to express a range of emotions.
(KOBIAN robot video)
KOBIAN can express seven different feelings, including delight, surprise, sadness and dislike. In addition to assuming different poses to match the mood, the emotional humanoid uses motors in its face to move its lips, eyelids and eyebrows into various positions. To express delight, for example, the robot lifts its soft rubbery hands over its head and opens its eyes and mouth wide.
I've been wracking my brains for physically, emotionally demonstrative robots in science fiction; maybe it's me, but the most common use is for some sort of comic relief. I thought of C3P0, from Star Wars, as well as Marvin the robot from The Hitchhikker's Guide to the Galaxy. Oh, and the Robot from Lost in Space. In some ways, their performances are not that much different from those of KOBIAN.
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'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
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