I spent a considerable amount of time this weekend finishing up Resident Evil 5 which might explain my reaction to this story – what is that woman hugging something from the Demon Seed movie?

After my initial 'arrrgh', I realized that the robot actually makes sense. Sort of. The robot in question is a 4 feet 3 inch model which is basically a giant android baby. A gargantuan scary one at that. Named Diego-san, this invention will help its creators understand how babies learn various skills. The focus is on how little ones pick up behavioral aspects like gestures and expressions. Since the robot has a built-in camera as well as accelerometers, this would be to gauge how they learn skills in reaction to the surrounds or outside stimuli.

I am somewhat relieved to learn that the robot's face will be different in later models. That head is extremely creepy. Alright, so they had to make a big head, to fit in all the necessary devices. But could it please look a little bit less like Chucky next time?

Speaking of which, the geniuses behind the creation is Kokoro, who incidentally also came up with the Actroid. You know, the secretarial/PR type of android that was displayed quite a bit last year? Given that the Actroid looks pretty lifelike (and not at all frightening), I am guessing the baby-bot will become more endearing later on. Until then, no hugging scenes … please. It is disconcerting that in the demo the robot is embracing folks while it has a strangely evil expression on its face.

By the way, this is not the first instance that a baby robot has emerged looking like something out of a horror movie. Think back to CB2, the robot from two years back. This one was programmed so that it would mimic little brats from 1-2 years of age. Except that he ended up doing a Futurama scene. Maybe it's the fact that he is a bit tall for the age he is imitating? Or perhaps it was the weird facial expressions (shudder, shudder)? Again, why the Chucky resemblance? Which, when you think about it, doesn't go down well when you remember the hugging photos.

It could be that the other two freaked me out so much that this one looked normal. This is not a robot as such but is simulator of sorts. Called the Yataro Baby Simulator, this one was supposed to teach folks how to deal with babies. Thus, it would react to input from parents, telling them if baby is pleased or sad or just grumpy. On a side note, it is disturbing that the kid/bot is dressed as a furry. A bit too early to decide that, don't you think? Anyway, at least it's not out there scary. Actually it looks a bit like that face-in-the-sun kid from Teletubbies but given the other bots on this list, this one walks away as the cool one. Or rolls … or is carried, whichever works best.