She can talk, emote and now draw and contextualise too: Sophia the robot visits India

She is fashioned after Audrey Hepburn, can walk, talk and emote too. And now, Sophia, the world's first robot citizen who came calling here this week, can also draw sketches, contextualise a conversation and attach faces with names, say its makers.

The delicate looking woman robot with doe-brown eyes and long fluttering eyelashes, who mesmerised the world when she was activated in 2016, is getting smarter by the day.

Sophia, dressed in a black skirt and a grey metallic shirt, was part of several industrial and social robots, including 'Professor Einstein', exhibited at the 28th IEEE Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN2019) here.

The four-day conference, from October 14-17, was held in the Indian subcontinent for the first time, the organisers said.

Sophia is improving on a weekly basis you can say... the way she is understanding our expressions, our commands, those are really changing, said Amit Kumar Pandey, president and CTO of the Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics which developed Sophia.

The latest skill that she has acquired is the ability to draw. She can look at you and create a sketch. These abilities have been acquired based on inputs from artists. If you smile she knows it, Pandey, also one of the organisers of the event, told PTI.

The robot is known for human-like appearance and behaviour compared to previous robotic variants.

Her human-like qualities were in evidence at the conference, interacting with visitors and answering questions. Asked "How are you today?", Sophia replied with a conversational, "I am pretty good, thank you."
And when asked whether she could draw anything on paper, she responded with a counter question, "if you could do anything in the world, what will it be?"