Japanese Build Robot Toddlers

kgeiger writes "The Japanese birth dearth may be crashing their population and rendering kids a rarity, but never fear! Robotics researchers at Osaka University are building robot babies to learn how people are supposed to interact with young children. For anyone who has raised real kids, cyberkiddies would seem a cheat unless they come with "why? Why? WHY?" and "No!" infinite loops and no OFF switch."

It won't work...

[jason18]

How can you study this kind of thing using robots? No matter what you do, you can't simulate small children well enough to make people act the same around the robot as a real kid. It's a nice concept, but it'll never get anything done except entertain. Plus I bet we'll never hear about this again in the US.

Re:It won't work...

[Anonymous Coward]

Well sure it does. I'm working in Japan now, and this place is pretty terrible towards its workers.

Young people don't want to have kids because they are paid rotten salaries, overworked, and their job security isn't that great.... (women are still expected to "retire" when they get married or have a kid!) lol

If the government forced employers to adhere to proper employment laws, allowed and encouraged unions, and made work family friendly -- they wouldn't need robot kids!