‘Social robot’ tipped for big success

MEET Zeno, a robot that uses breakthrough artificial intelligence (AI) software to reason and get smarter over time.

Created by David Hanson and making its debut yesterday, Zeno is 43cm tall and weighs 2.7kg.

The vision and decision-making capabilities in its software give Zeno the ability to navigate, make facial expressions and move his body. It also has a character engine with speech recognition and conversational AI for so that Zeno can recognise and remember speech and faces.

Hanson Robotics believes there’s an emerging business in the sale of lifelike robotic companions, or social robots. They showed Zeno to students at the Wired NextFest technology conference yesterday in Los Angeles.

Zeno, driven wirelessly by a PC, can convey emotion through a face made of a skin-like material.

“It sees you and recognises your face. It learns your name and can build a relationship with you,” said Mr Hanson.

He plans to make little Zenos available within three years for $300 (€216).