Meet K-bot, the face of future that can read your emotions

The world's most sophisticated humanoid can grin with satisfaction or sneer in disdain. It was was shown in public for the first time yesterday in a remarkable demonstration of cybernetic emotions.

With 24 motors to manipulate the artificial skin of its face, K-bot has a pair of cameras in its eyes designed to analyse people's faces. David Hanson, a researcher at the University of Texas, said K-bot had 28 facial expressions and was able to mimic the entire array of human emotions.

"In terms of complexity and expense incurred, K-bot is not the most expensive in the world," Mr Hanson told the association. "But in terms of the sophistication of what it is capable of doing, it is the most advanced."

The robot's face is covered with a polymer developed by Mr Hanson with elasticity comparable to human skin. He added: "The human face has evolved over millions of years to convey information and even newborn babies are capable of perceiving emotion by looking at a face. It makes sense to make robots with facial expressions comparable to those of humans.

"This is the face for sociable robotics ... it has never existed before in a robot, so this is the first robot to use that leading-edge technology."

K-bot's face, which is modelled on that of Kristen Nelson, an artist and friend of Mr Hanson, was designed by analysing the movements of the muscles that control the facial movements of humans. Scientists intend to further develop robots capable of expressing human emotions as an aid for teachers and doctors.

"This could become an extremely useful tool for medical therapies at some stage," said Mr Hanson.