human side

Moody android

Kobian is not just any ordinary robot. It’s a robot with human qualities. Kobian can display a range of human emotions. This emotional humanoid robot can express diverse moods and feelings, including joy, surprise, dislike and sadness. Apart from being expressive, Kobian also poses and gestures to complement its many moods. It moves its lips, eyelids and eyebrows, using the motors fitted in its face, reports The Daily Telegraph. Kobian bends, hangs its head and covers its face with its hands to express sorrow. And as if that wasn’t enough, the humanoid robot can also move around, sense its environment and carry out physical work. Researchers at Waseda’s Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering in Tokyo, Japan, developed and unveiled Kobian recently. The robot’s developers said that the purpose of making it capable of emotion was to help it assist humans better. Kobian will probably be used for nursing.

pink phobia

Flamingos see pink

Little and large almost run at the sight of the colour pink. They are a pair of flamingo chicks at the London Zoo and they have developed a fear for the colour after a pink sock puppet was used to feed them. The zoo staff hope that they will outgrow their phobia before they turn pink themselves. Alison Brown, a keeper at the zoo, said that she used the puppet to encourage Little to eat by himself as the puppet looked like an adult flamingo. But the idea went all awry. Flamingo chicks take a year to develop their distinctive pink colour and every one is hoping for Large and Little to overcome their pink phobia before that.