The Robots are Coming.

MEET ASIMO. Asimo, created by the Honda Motor Corporation, is a humanoid robot. It has two legs, two arms and red lights for eyes. It can walk, talk, climb stairs and even dance. It also has cool technology inside that helps it recognize people's faces, gestures and voices.

" Meet him once and he never forgets”, says one of Asimo's creators. “When he sees you again, he'll come up to you and say "Hello".

It took Honda's engineers 16 years to create Asimo. Today's model is 120 cm tall and weighs 43 kg. Asimo is not for sale yet because is creators want it to become even more intelligent. Very soon Asimo will be able to fetch food and drinks from the fridge and lots of other things about the house.

At your service. If you are sick and tired of helping your parents about the house, then a new robot could be the answer.

WAKAMURU, made by Mitsubishi, has been designed to make people's lives easier. This bright yellow robot with beady eyes can do different gobs for you remember things you have to do.

Here are some things Wacamuru can say: "Let me search the Internet! ","Welcome back!”," You are home late!", "What time will you be back?"

If Wacamuru is on its own and something seems wrong, it can e-mail its owner to let them know there is a problem.

It's so clever that when is batteries run out Wakamaru knows that it needs to recharge itself, so it does!

A ROBOT FOR A PET

Aibo, the dog, designed by Sony, can walk ,talk and wag its tail. It can express emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, surpise, fear and dislike. You can talk to it and it will respond! And, unlike ordinary dogs, Aibo can read your e-mail and take pictures.

You don't have to clean after it and its feeding is very cheap just recharge its batteries.

You can programme Aibo to respond to a specific name. You can also change its software so that it becomes a puppy, complete with crying and demanding behaviour.

For people who prefer cats there are robot cats of course.

JUST LIKE YO AND ME

American scientist David Hanson, who used to work for Disney, has invented a robot face that looks exactly like a human one. Called the K-bot, the face has 24 special motors under its rubber skin .It means that it will be able to smile, laugh, frown and even make faces.

DON'T WORRY!

Would you like to have a robot that could understand how you feel, maybe even help you if you felt a bit down in the mouth? US robot makers Nilanjan Sarkar and psychologist Graig Smith are building just such a machine.

They want it to be as sensitive to our moods and emotions as humans are themselves. It won't have emotions of its own but it should be able to respond to its owner's mood. So, if you 're a bit down in the mouth the robot will move forward and ask if it can help you. Of course it's not easy job because everyone shows emotions in quite different ways.

ROBOT SOLDIER

US scientists are working on a mechanical super-soldier that will be able to jump from buildings, kill enemies, heal his own wounds and even become invisible!

The world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology is putting millions of dollars into research for the soldiers of the future.

Hopefully .the soldier of the future won't be ready for at least 10 years.

So the robots are finally among us. But will be they really help us create a more pleasant way of life? Or will be they cause problems too?

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Exercise 1. Read and translate the article with the help of a dictionary: