We’ve all seen the Sony robot dogs right? The next generation is an order of magnitude more sophisticated. Qrio (pronounced Curio) is not publically available yet but is shown here in a number of flash and video demos. http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/

The robot can speak, recognize voices and faces, simulate emotion, converse in a non-deterministic fashion and use gestures to communicate. It can walk (bi-pedal motion), stand itself up if knocked over, balance on a surf board, climb stairs and tackle things like light gravel.

The clips are amazing, one shows the robot sort of jogging and jumping on the spot. Another shows it kicking a ball and chasing it. The closest thing to Qrio I’ve seen is the Honda Asimo (http://asimo.honda.com/index.asp?bhcp=1) but I think Sony have it beat.

The video clip’s are in Real format which is probably the worst player available, constantly prompting you to install rubbish on your PC. It’s worth installing just to view these videos. Then uninstall it right away

Sony is marketting Qrio as a life companion. Forget same-sex marriage, how long before Qrio-human unions are made legal? or Asimov’s vision is realized?