A dinosaur that can yawn, sigh, sniff

New York: Scientists have developed a robotic dinosaur which can react to emotions. It can wag its tail and offer a shake hand if addressed with compassion and display signs of depression.

The robot would also yawn, sigh, sniff, sniffle, snore, cough, hiccup and even sneeze, CNET online news service has reported. Pleo, manufactured by Ugobe, will cost around $250 when it hits market in the second quarter of next year.

A camera in the robot's nostrils, explains CNET, lets it "see," and multiple sensors under its feet and skin can respond to touch. While it won't recognise spoken commands, it will recognise tones and react to what it senses in them.

"You can consider it more of a lifelike creature than a toy," Ugobe CEO Bob Christopher told CNET. "We're kind of putting psychology back into robots."

Ugobe, the report said, will try to go beyond selling a walking/talking toy. The company will publish a developers' kit and open its source code, making the Pleo.

Consumers thus will be able to download "personality modules" and see how their Pleos react to different stimuli. "There are 400 discrete movements built into it," according to Christopher.

A consumer, for example, could plug in "hungry" and "scared" and see how Pleo reacts to a hand in front of its nose when in those states; then the owner could, hypothetically, change the personality characteristics to angry and irritable.

Ultimately, the company may license the technology so others can build or incorporate robots into their own products. "We've created a toolset for making lifelike robots," Christopher said.

Pleo contains more than 150 gears to help it move in a more natural fashion. Moving the front legs, for instance, will cause changes in the back of the dinosaur. Some of the motions are herky-jerky, so it more closely resembles a young animal.

"People don't move efficiently," Christopher said. "You wouldn't have a nervous twitch if you were totally efficient." It also contains six microprocessors and a flash memory card slot on its soft underbelly.

CNET said a paleontologist helped design the Pleo, and it is anatomically correct. It resembles a one-week-old Camarasaurus, a cow-like dinosaur from the Jurassic period that roamed North America and South America.