日本婴儿机器人会哭笑 让人体验育儿乐趣

It giggles and wiggles its feet when you shake its rattle, but will get cranky and cry from too much tickling: Meet Yotaro, a Japanese robot programmed to be as fickle as a real baby.

The cuddly baby-bot looks unearthly with a pair of luminous blue eyes and oversized cheeks, but engineering students are hoping it will teach young people the pleasures of parenting as Japan faces a demographic crisis.

"Yotaro is a robot with which you can experience physical contact just like with a real baby and reproduce the same feelings," said Hiroki Kunimura of Tsukuba University's robotics and behavioral sciences lab north of Tokyo.

Yotaro's face, made of soft translucent silicon with a rosy hue, is backlit by a projector connected to a computer to simulate crying, sneezing, sleeping and smiling, while a speaker can let out bursts of baby giggles.

The baby changes its facial expressions and moves its arms and legs when different parts of its face and body are touched. Physical contact is detected by sensors, and Yotaro's mood changes based on the frequency of touches.

Yotaro also simulates a runny nose, with the help of a water pump that releases body-temperature droplets of water through the nostrils.

While the baby robot has a balloon-sized head and exaggerated facial features, its inventors nonetheless hope "Yotaro could help young parents to learn about raising a baby," said research team member Masatada Muramoto.

"We came up with the idea of a baby robot because we wanted to reproduce a human being's warmth and skin colour," said Kunimura.

"We decided on an infant that has not yet learnt to talk because the feelings generated towards a newborn will be the same for everyone, and because interaction is less complicated than if we had made it talk."

Japan is already famous for highly sophisticated robots, from Honda's humanoid Asimo to pancake-flipping chef Motoman to Paro the fluffy robot seal that helps ease loneliness among the elderly.

Hundreds of thousands of industrial robots toil in factories, while robo-receptionists can serve tea, greet guests or vacuum corridors.

当你摇动它身体上的拨浪鼓时，它会扭动小脚丫，发出咯咯的笑声，但如果不停地挠它痒痒，它就会发脾气哭闹——这就是“阳太郎”，日本发明的一款会像真正的婴儿那样喜怒无常的机器人。

这个机器人婴儿的外表与众不同，它有着超大的脸颊和一双蓝色发亮的眼睛，看上去十分讨人喜爱。研究人员希望在日本面临人口危机的大背景下，这款机器人能让年轻人体验到育儿的乐趣。

位于东京北部的筑波大学机器人技术和行为科学实验室的国村广城说：“阳太郎可以让你体验到与真正婴儿进行身体接触的感觉，这种感觉是一样的。”

阳太郎的脸部由柔软半透明的玫瑰色硅胶制成。它的脸部下面有一个投影设备打出背光，这个设备与电脑相联，在电脑的控制下，阳太郎会做出哭泣、打喷嚏、睡觉和微笑等动作和表情，同时还有一个扬声器可以发出阵阵咯咯的婴儿笑声。

当触摸“阳太郎”脸部和身体的不同部位时，它的面部表情会发生变化，还会移动胳膊和双腿。阳太郎通过传感器感受人的“爱抚”，根据触摸频率的不同，阳太郎的“情绪”也会随之变化。

阳太郎还会流鼻涕，这一功能主要通过一个水泵来实现。在水泵的帮助下，与体温温度差不多的水滴就会从阳太郎的鼻孔中流出。

这个机器人婴儿的头和气球差不多大小，面部特征也比较夸张，但研究小组成员村本正忠说，它的发明者希望“它能够帮助年轻夫妇学会如何育儿。”

国村说：“制造这款机器人源于我们想仿制人类体温和肤色的想法。”

“我们决定制造一款不会说话的婴儿机器人，因为大家对新生儿的感觉都差不多，而且相对于会说话的机器人，与不会说话的机器人交流起来也简单一些。”

日本素以制造高端精密机器人而著称，从本田公司的仿人机器人阿西莫到会抛煎饼的厨师机器人莫托曼再到帮助老年人排解寂寞的毛茸机器海豹帕罗，五花八门，无所不有。

另外还有能奉茶、迎宾、会用吸尘器的机器人接待员，以及数十万在工厂里劳作的工业机器人。

Vocabulary:

wiggle: to move from side to side or up and down in short quick movements; to make something move in this way （使）扭动，摆动，摇动

rattle: a baby's toy that makes a series of short loud sounds when it is shaken 拨浪鼓

cranky: bad-tempered 脾气坏的

fickle: changing often and suddenly 易变的；无常的

cuddly: if a person is cuddly, they make you want to cuddle them 令人想拥抱的

demographic: relating to or concerning demography 人口的

backlit: lit or illuminated from behind 从后面打光

vacuum: to clean something using a vacuum cleaner 用真空吸尘器清扫