Now, robot that can guess your mood

A 60-centimetre-high robot that has been built by Will Jackson and his colleagues at Engineered Arts in Penryn, UK, can guess one's age.

If the Kickstarter campaign of the company turns out to be successful, a cheaper, slimmed-down version is going to come for home use, New Scientist reported.

SociBot-Mini makes use of a depth-sensing camera to capture and recognise gestures; it can also use a webcam to capture facial expressions.

Computer vision software allows the robot to recognize people, and even gauge one's mood from their grimaces and smiles, as well as guess their age.

The robot comes with chatbot software based on Rosette, which provides it a bit of understanding of speech.

SociBot-Mini's transparent plastic face also contours for a nose, mouth and eyes, and is backlit with a digital projector.