Will we ever want to have sex with robots?
Meet Roxxxy the sex robot with a triple XXX. Depending on your view 'she' is either at the cutting edge of the human- robot interface, or a modern reflection on some men's difficulties in relating to real-life partners. While sex aids are nothing new, what makes Roxxxy different is "we've taken artificial intelligence" and "combined it with a human form," says creator Douglas Hines. Of course, humanoid robots have been the stuff of science fiction for decades - ever since Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis, or Isaac Asimov's I Robot stories. The reality is somewhat more clunky. Walking robots currently have little commercial value - they are expensive and are prone to falling over if they are placed on anything other than a flat surface. One of the best of the bunch is Japan's all singing and dancing female robot, HRP-4C, from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). The main d...