NEC is showing off the Papero Personal Robot designed to interact with people and be programmed for human-like interactions and tasks. Papero can check email, tune the TV to your favorite channel, and even dance with your children. This egg-shaped robot knows your favorite football team and searches the Internet for the day's lineups and scores when you get home. It will also develop a personality depending on how you treat it.

PaPeRo "hears" with four microphones, understands 650 phrases, and speaks more than 3,000. Its improved speech-recognition software works well in realistic environments, including noisy and hectic homes. PaPeRo's technology derives from proven NEC applications in telephone directory systems that use speech recognition, and in foreign language translation software for PCs and PDAs.

PaPeRo also identifies people it knows, using face-recognition technology and two cameras for eyes.

The new robot will perform a demonstration at the World Exposition, which runs in Japan's central Aichi region for six months from March 25 and is expected to draw around 15 million visitors.
GeekZone/a>