Robot baby built to study infant cognition

Engineers from the Machine Perception Laboratory have made a creepy robot baby. Okay, maybe that judgment is a bit harsh -- many human babies are creepy looking as well. 

The baby was built in an effort to better understand how infants learn. Typically parents do not enjoy having their own babies poked and prodded by scientists, so the robot baby makes a convenient experimental specimen to research.

The baby was written up in a Japanese magazine called Kokoro News, so details are a bit hard to come by, as my Japanese is subpar. But it seems clear that the baby's name is Diego, and that the Dr. Light in this circumstance was Dr. Javier Movellan.

The robo-baby's face uses 20 actuators that Diego uses to communicate with his human overlords. With a roughly a one-year-old's ability set, Diego is able to hold a water bottle in its hand, and can stand up and move around a bit. Deigo has high-res cameras for eyes, and a sensor that tells him if he is moving.

Apparently the robo-baby enjoys hugs, and has not been programmed to cry.