asahi.com : Sony to breathe life into robots at new lab

The Asahi Shimbun

Imagine a robot that can speak the lingo so well you'd be hard-pressed to distinguish it from the ramblings of a flesh-and-blood human being.
Now imagine it was only five years from now.
That's one of the goals Sony Corp. will set out to achieve when it opens a laboratory in May or June to research next-generation robots.
``In five years' time, we want to create a robot that is able to talk so smoothly that it cannot be discerned from human beings,'' says Sony Executive Vice President Toshitada Doi, who sources say will head the tentatively named Life Dynamics Laboratory. Doi previously led the development of Sony's robot dog Aibo.
Research is expected to transcend the robotics field to include brain science.
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