TIME's Best Inventions of 2008

The Other 49 Best Inventions
Michael Siegel / MIT Media Lab

17. The Mobile, Dexterous, Social Robot

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Nexi is the first of a new class of robot being developed at MIT's Media Lab and referred to as MDS, which stands for mobile, dexterous, social. Nexi can, or eventually will be able to, move around on wheels (hence mobile), and it can pick up objects (dexterous). But its most striking feature is its humanlike, albeit creepy, face, which can express a startling range of emotions (social).

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