C-3PO might be fluent in over six million forms of communication, but this android, developed by Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), only needs one. Designed to interact with people who might not normally be comfortable with something artificial and complex like an android — such as children, the elderly, and computer illiterate — the NICT robot specializes in nonverbal communication. What's more, it can identify and remember what others are trying to convey through body language and respond accordingly. It watches and learns.

NICT has pooled knowledge based on cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience to determine its android's behavioral patterns. Every person the android watches is saved as a complex 3D map in its memory, allowing it to not only identify individuals in repeated meetings, but react to them in a specific manner. So, by using a series of gestures and touch, NICT hopes that its 'bot will be able to act as a caregiver and in other occupations where tenderness is needed.

Japan has a disproportionately large elderly population when compared to the size of its youth and there is a worry that proper care just won't be an option — not to mention a shrinking labor pool. Advances in automation gives the country one option as to how to fill those gaps. I know it's early yet, but if NICT wants this robot to get friendly with old folks, they might want to cover its frightening robo-skeleton. — Kevin Hall

NICT, via Pink Tentacle