Dental robot flinches just like a real patient

Roboticists at Japan's Showa University say they have perfected their life-like dental training robot to such an degree they now feel she is ready to be let loose on her first dental students.

Revealed at a recent press conference in Japan, "Showa Hanako 2" is a medical automaton capable of sneezing, head shaking, coughing, mimicking gagging, and will even close her mouth like a real patient when feeling that telltale jaw ache associated with the dentist reaching inside your mouth. With voice recognition technology the trainee dentist can even carry out a rudimentary conversation with the robot.

Click here to read the article and see a video from NewScientist.com.