Source: news.com.au

By: Peter Familari

Saya the robot receptionist at work at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel in February 2007.

In what could be a way of the future, primary students in Tokyo are being taught by a robot. Saya is the result of 15 years of research and is being tested as a teacher after working as a receptionist. It is multilingual, can organize set tasks for pupils, call the roll, and get angry when the kids misbehave.

Saya is just one example of Japan’s determination to put a robot in every home by 2015.

The robot was originally developed for companies who want to cut costs by replacing office workers a such as secretaries and receptionists with an android that had a range of human expressions.

She’s already employed as a receptionist in the foyer of Tokyo University where dressed in a shape-hugging yellow shirt she meets and greets visitors.

Her inventor Professor Hirohi Kobayashi of Tokyo University has been reported as saying while it isn’t hard to build a robot that looks like a human being, it is much more difficult to create software that mimics the human mind.

But he believes that within a few years robots with the physical and mental skills of a two-year old child will be available.

Other robots are already used as traffic wardens and one is being made that will be a companion for people afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.