I found this story enchanting this week, the Heart Robot, another move forward in the world of robotics.  I have met ASIMO and my human response to the robot was quite profound.  He made me feel like I needed to be gentle and smile at him.  Of course this was done for a reason, the childlike appearance of Asimo has been designed to give a more favourable response to the robot.  The sensors and recognition of robots is changing considerably and now we have the Heart Robot.  A robot that tenses and changes to the tone of your voice and touch.  The heart beat speeds up when held by a new human, until it adjusts to you.  Raising voice or handling roughly will cause 'him' to tense.  This got me thinking, of course as robotics technology develops the robots we can buy in ToysRUs will also change as technology becomes adopted for commerical purposes.  Apparently there is also a robot dinosaur Pleo

An extract from the Pleo website is below

Every Pleo is autonomous. Yes, each one begins life as a newly-hatched baby Camarasaurus, but that's where predictability ends and individuality begins. Like any creature, Pleo feels hunger and fatigue - offset by powerful urges to explore and be nurtured. He'll graze, nap and toddle about on his own -when he feels like it! Pleo dinosaur can change his mind and his mood, just as you do.

Of course Pleo reacts to the 'care' given by its little owner.  This got me thinking about my daughter Helena having one.  My daughter has a unique approach to her toy play and poor Pleo would not necessarily get the required 'care' and nurturing he may well expect from another child.  He would need to be robust 'psychologically' to cope with my daughter (just as we have to be, as her parents).  What would happen if Pleo came to our house.  Would the robot have burnt out circuits? go into anxiety attacks?  would we need to take him to a robot therapist for work? or would his experience change him into a marauding monster in our household?

It certainly made me think....robots are new into our world... What if we interact with them in the wrong way?