Fembot to Make Catwalk Debut

Life-like bot will strut her stuff at Tokyo Fashion Week

Japan's newest fashion model is barely over five feet tall. She has soft black hair, flawless skin and weighs about 95 pounds.

She also goes by the name of HRP-4C.

Developers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Technology have created a "cybernetic human" -- a walking, talking robot that will strut her stuff on the catwalk during Japan's Fashion Week in Tokyo next week.

The robot, designed to resemble the average Japanese woman, can smile and strike a seductive pose but hasn't yet cleared the safety standards needed to share the runway with human models, the Associated Press reported.

"Even as a fashion model, people in the industry told us she was short and had a rather ordinary figure," developer Hirohisa Hirukawa told the AP.

Nevertheless, the robot wowed audiences when she was unveiled Monday and said "Hello, everyone," in a feminine voice. Her next challenge is to capture the hearts of those in the ever-critical fashion industry.

HRP-4C has 30 motors in her body and eight in her face, enabling her to make realistic movements and express a range of emotions from anger to surprise.

The "fashion robot" is only the newest humanoid technology to come from Japan. Five days ago, a robot teacher named Saya took attendance and scolded students in a Tokyo school.

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