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"The bottom line in the Dune trilogy is: beware of heroes. Much better to rely on your own judgment, and your own mistakes."
- Frank Herbert

Gesturing Robot  
  A robot that uses gestures to communicate.  

In "Strange Playfellow" (aka "Robbie") by Isaac Asimov (1940) robots have not advanced to the point where they can talk, instead they use gestures. There is an impractical "talking robot" for display.

Robbie waited until she had caught her breath and then pulled gently at a lock of hair.
"You want something?" said Gloria, eyes wide in an apparently artless complexity that fooled her huge "nursemaid" not at all. He pulled the curl harder.
"Oh, I know. You want a story." Robbie nodded rapidly.
"Which one?" Robbie made a semi-circle in the air with one finger. The little girl protested, "Again? I've told you Cinderella a million times. Aren't you tired of it? -It's for babies."
Another semi-circle.
"Oh, well," Gloria composed herself, ran over the details of the tale in her mind (together with her own elaborations, of which she had several) and began...
Technovelgy from Robbie (Strange Playfellow), by Isaac Asimov.
Published by Super Science Stories in 1940
Additional resources -

Thanks to Winchell Chung (aka @nyrath) of Project Rho for contributing this item.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Robbie (Strange Playfellow)
  More Ideas and Technology by Isaac Asimov
  Tech news articles related to Robbie (Strange Playfellow)
  Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov

Gesturing Robot-related news articles:
  - Robonaut 2 Uses American Sign Language (ASL) on ISS

Articles related to Robotics
Robot Gas Station Attendant Pumps Gas For You
SnapBot Robots - You Choose Their Legs And They Choose Their Gaits
Humanoid Robots Building Humanoid Robots
What's The Best Way To Ship And Unpack Humanoid Robots?

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