Some of you might remember about two years ago when we reported on the Child-robot with Biomimetic Body, aka the CB2. The CB2 is a robotic toddler that is programmed with AI to make it act like a baby.

Apparently, two years of cognitive development have been good for the robo-tyke. It has been developing social skills by recording facial expressions with its eye cameras, and it can match them with physical sensations of its own.

There have even been reports that the CB2 has learned to walk by observing humans doing it. That is all my sources say about that, and I would like to know if any interim period of crawling for the CB2 was required before it learned to walk.

The developers hope that it will not take long before CB2 learns how to talk, presumably by listening to other people. At what point will the CB2 start school? Should it be home-schooled, or entered into public school? Man, the other kids will be merciless to him…it.

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I’m sure that all of you have heard of Asimo, Honda’s robot that moves with surprising grace. It would appear that Honda Research Institute are working together to make the human mind work together with this artificial body.

Yes, Honda has finally created the world’s first Brain Machine Interface. All a user needs to do is sit with some skull cap interface on, and (electroencephalography) EEG and NIRS (near-infrared spectroscopy) sensors can detect your thoughts and transmit them into action for Asimo.

I watched Honda’s video of this new science. They really hyped it up by introducing a world where we can open our trunk with a thought, or turn on our heater when it gets too cold. I have a video of it after the jump if you would like to see it for yourself.

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A while ago, I reported on the Oboe, a concept robot that does nothing but stand and record the experiences of someone you love with its fancy spherical hard drive. I remember thinking that someone should make a robot that should assist the elderly now, and not just preserve their memories for later.

Someone has apparently heard my wishes and created the ApriAttenda robot, which is intended to assist the elderly. This little one-meter tall robot has the astromech droid appearance of R2D2, but with the arms of C3PO.

Its arms are versatile, and can open doors and refrigerators, as well as handle things that senior citizens might not be able to lift anymore. You have to wonder if you are looking at an age where the elderly are being cared for by robots.

Of course, why stop with having robots take care of the elderly? I mean, couldn’t these guys be nanny-bots as well? Is it possible that these robot arms could gently lift and cuddle newborn babies? I don’t know if I would want to offer my children to this ApriAttenda for their care.

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If you are going to build a robot that looks human, why not make it into a fashion model? This is exactly what Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology did when they unveiled the HRP-4C.

As you can see, it is 5 foot tall, weighs about 95 pounds, but I don’t know her bust/waist/hips measurements. They made her to look lifelike, and I thought she was real at first glance. She reminds me of Faith from the Mirror’s Edge video game.

It would appear that this HRP-4C is going to have a test run as it is going on the runway during Tokyo’s five-day fashion show. I wonder how it will walk with a book on its head.

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Imagine a world where robots tend our gardens, helping us grow fresh food while we sit there and do nothing but enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of our labors.

It would appear that students and researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have created robots that can tend tomato plants. The plants are equipped with soil sensors and they can network with the robots, allowing them to communicate when they need water or nutrients.

No human is required for this robo-gardening operation. The robots have watering pumps and arms that can gently pick cherry tomatoes.

The goal of this project is, of course, to “develop a fully autonomous greenhouse”, so there are robots and plants that are connected together by computation and communication.

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What you are seeing here isn’t the latest toy robot from Wowwee, but a concept robot called the Oboe. I’m not certain why this robot is named after a woodwind instrument, because what it does has nothing to do with music.

Anyone care to guess what Oboe’s directive is? If you said “assist the elderly”, then you are half-right. Sadly, the Oboe isn’t designed to be mobile, so it cannot help with cooking or other household chores like the creepy one that lived with Will Smith’s grandmother in the I, Robot movie.

No, the Oboe is designed to stand still like a statue. What good is that? See that ball thing that the Oboe is holding in its hand? It is actually an odd type of hard disk drive that will absorb knowledge and experience of the senior citizen it is living with. This way, after the elderly person passes away, the Oboe will have recorded many of their important life experiences.

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Want to have a toy that goes on and on and on without the use of Energizer or Duracell batteries? That’s not a problem with the Solar Powered Orangutan, although it does look like a carved out piece of Lego from certain angles. All you need to do is set this Orangutan on a piece of string, expose it to some light and voila – it will get to work, climbing up to the very pinnacle according to its ability. You will need some assembly with this toy though, and it will take you approximately 20 minutes to complete the whole setup. The only tool you need? A simple screwdriver. $14.99 is the asking price for this piece of mindless fun.

Considering the fragile state of the economy these days, it is probably good to start saving money. Sure, you could use an old-fashioned piggy bank, but technology always gives us an electrical alternative.

This is where the Robot Money Box comes in. When you put money in the bank, it can actually keep track of how much you put in. I’m not certain how it does this. I doubt it has advanced sensors or anything. Perhaps it can somehow counts as you put it your coins or dollars in.

Another feature that makes the Robot Money box different from your average piggy bank is that it praises you for saving money. Not only that, but you can make target goals for saving, and it will encourage you for making them.

There is one other feature that my source and the Product Page are very vague about. Apparently, the Robot Money Box “may even try to stop you if you try to take anything out”.

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