1. Wide view of Beer Sheva, Israel's southern desert city

2. Various exterior shots Ben-Gurion University building

3. Pan from man at reception to robot receptionist seated at desk

4. UPSOUND (English): "Nice to see you. Who are you looking for?" Man answers: "Yuri"

5. Robot answering

UPSOUND (English): "His office number is 115" Man and robot exchange goodbyes

6. Close up of robot's face

7. Cutaway computer screen

8. Various of robot showing expressions of surprise and sadness

9. Various of robot responding to verbal questions

10. Tilt up robot with Dr Hiroshi Kobayashi, Robot Creator and Professor Shlomi Dolev, Computer Science, Ben-Gurion University

11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr Hiroshi Kobayashi, Robot Creator

"It's very difficult to communicate naturally, like human to human. At the moment we are just using the database with Sayah, but if we had a sophisticated artificial intelligence it will be possible to realise very natural communication between human and robot."

12. Sayah seated at desk in lobby

13. Sayah's legs next to her 'brain' - a computer under the desk

14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Professor Shlomi Dolev, Computer Science, Ben-Gurion University

"In particular they are able to mimic faces of people and let us feel that we speak with a person but in fact it's a doll, it's a robot and it makes the illusion so well, so you don't see it's not sophisticated and not intelligent as we are."

15. Sayah interacting with man at reception asking questions. "Bye bye"

LEAD IN :

Students and academics at Israel's Ben Gurion University, computer science department are being greeted by a new receptionist, who started work this week.

Her neat appearance and demure demeanour hides her hidden secret, the thousands of electronic parts that make this robot receptionist work.

There's a new receptionist on the front desk of the faculty of computer science at Israel's Ben Gurion University.

Her name is Sayah and she's a robot.

Sayah sits behind a desk in the reception lobby and greets visitors, asking them who they are looking for.

The robot analyses the human response, searches her data base and comes up with a match. "He's in room 115"

Sayah is the creation of Dr. Hiroshi Kobayashi at the Tokyo University of Science.

When the scientists at BGU heard about her, they decided she would be a great receptionist for their faculty where there is a heavy emphasis on robotics and artificial intelligence.

The robot receptionist is the latest in a line of machines built by Kobayashi's team called 'face robots'.

Unlike other robots presented in recent years to the public, Sayah presents a real effort to be human to create almost human-like interaction.

On command, she can change her expression to one of anger, happiness, sadness or surprise.

Dozens of small mechanical devices under her facial 'skin' can rearrange her lips, eyes and even nostrils, although Dr Kobayashi did not explain what makes this otherwise perfect employee turn on the anger.

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