Tap a touch screen in the Miraikan science museum, and a woman seated nearby on a plush white chair beams a placid smile.
Tap another icon, and her too-smooth face twists into a scowl.
Watch a corner of the screen, and see the museum through a camera embedded in one of her eyes. Speak into a microphone, and your voice comes out of the robot’s mouth.
“This is just a trial,” said Yuko Okayama, the museum’s manager of international affairs. “But in the future, people might live with this. We want visitors to think what it’s like, living with robots.”
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