Robot takes first steps in actor role

SONY CORPORATION’S toddler-shaped robot waddled into a Tokyo recording studio yesterday to dub a voice part for a television cartoon show, where the talking, dancing machine makes a cameo appearance.

Surrounded by a pack of photographers, the 23-inch-tall silver robot with glowing eyes walked slowly to a microphone, stopped, waved and muttered, “All this attention is making me nervous.”

Sony’s humanoid robot, called Qrio, uses software that changes text into an electronic voice. It took up its new challenge with gusto, delivering a couple of lines for an episode of Astro Boy, a weekly TV show from Sony Pictures Entertainment, set to start airing in the United States on Saturday.