Japanese dentists train on high-end robot

The faculty at a Japanese dental school said they enlisted the manufacturer of high-end sex dolls to develop a mannequin for their students to practice on. The result of the collaboration was a "patient" that is more realistic than other dummies down to a moving tongue and gag reflex. "We were looking for a more realistic reaction from the robot, which now we think we have achieved," Professor Yuuji Sato told British newspaper The Sun. Showa University Dental School teamed up with Orient Industry to produce the silicon "dental bot" that can produce a list of reactions often seen from real patients, including complaining of pain. The New York Daily News said Saturday Orient's Web site advertises a variety of dolls, some of them dressed in geisha clothing. U.S. technology Web site CNET took a closer look at the Showa Hanako 2 and noted engineering breakthroughs including 10 degrees of freedom of movement and a one-piece cheek and tongue assembly that keeps water out of the mechanism. The end result is more-lifelike movement and a realistic face. "If you don't try to make a robot's face look realistic, it doesn't have the same effect (on) users psychologically," Showa University Professor Koutaru Maki told CNET.