“Humanoid Robot Helps Scientists Understand Intelligence”

This to me is a little scary. I ran across this article on that is called iCub. It’s a robot, that they are working on developing artificial intelligence, to the point that it can think and do on it’s own. Seems that the androids in Star Trek may be coming to reality. I originally read the article on Science Daily and started searching Google for more information. The article states (in part);

Researchers want to learn more about how humans use cognition to interact with their world. They believe iCub’s human-like body will help them to understand how this is done.

Human like body? The picture in the article really doesn’t do the iCub justice, at least looking at it now… One of the other points in the article is this:

“We are really interested in making robots more empathetic to our needs. Imagine owning a robot like iCub who could be intelligent enough to understand that you are struggling to lift a heavy box and it helps you to carry it or imagine getting it to help you put up a shelf or do the housework because it recognises that you are ill. The work that we are doing could one day make this a reality.”

I wonder if I could get it to mow the yard?

Seriously, there are a few videos out there on the iCub. Go take a look and be amazed.