Nico social robot helps diagnose autism

So it's a big day for robots designed to work with kids. Nico doesn't have quite the same cutesy Gelfling appeal as Baizhixing, but then again who says you can't cuddle up with 20 metallic joints and motors. Developed at Yale, Nico was designed to help diagnose autism in children, being better suited to measuring the quantitative aspects of autism evaluation than the average flesh-based physician. The robot mimics the movements of an infact, has basic hand-eye coordination and can recognize other individuals as distinct from itself; it can even recognize itself in the mirror ("Hey, Number 5! Lookin' sharp today!"). Nico also knows how to interpret emotional inflections in the human voice, as well as identifying the locations and activities of nearby others. In fact, Nico sounds way more socially adept than a good percentage of the geeks we know and love. We'll have to have him over at the next Engadget soirée.