It's 2005...Where's my Yul Brenner robot with a bad attitude, dammit!

There was an interesting story (a fairly rare occurrence but at least it was on the front page) in Thursday's TWP. Done by the TWP's main J correspondent, it talks about Japan's focus on the development of new robots focused on serving personal needs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25394-2005Mar10?l

TOKYO -- Ms. Saya, a perky receptionist in a smart canary-yellow suit, beamed a smile from behind the "May I Help You?" sign on her desk, offering greetings and answering questions posed by visitors at a local university. But when she failed to welcome a workman who had just walked by, a professor stormed up to Saya and dished out a harsh reprimand.

"You're so stupid!" said the professor, Hiroshi Kobayashi, towering over her desk.

Cyber-receptionist Ms. Saya greets Hiroshi Kobayashi, her inventor, at the Tokyo University of Science. "She has a temper," the professor cautions.

"Eh?" she responded, her face wrinkling into a scowl. "I tell you, I am not stupid!"

Truth is, Saya isn't even human. But in a country where robots are changing the way people live, work, play and even love, that doesn't stop Saya the cyber-receptionist from defending herself from men who are out of line. With voice recognition technology allowing 700 verbal responses and an almost infinite number of facial expressions from joy to despair, surprise to rage, Saya may not be biological -- but she is nobody's fool.

Related to the story was a very amusing photo from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is holding/pawing a seal robot that is designed to interact with lonely old people.