I emailed a mutual contact of Japanese professor Hiroshi Ishiguro and mine to see if Prof Ishiguro was staying on in the States after his presentation in NY.  I just had to meet both him and his Geminoids.   I know from inviting Prof Ishiguro a few years ago for the biennial International Robot Show that due to a bad back, he rarely travels, and if he does, it must be first class.  Add to that the cost of a robot to ship from Japan, and unfortunately that wasn’t in the show budget (but quite easy for Dmitry Itskov).

I did get a reply directly from Hiroshi, inviting me to contact him if I go to Japan.  Though I’ve previously been there (13 years ago), it’s almost worth a trip just to see his Laboratory.  Actroid, Geminoid, Telenoid (are you getting the ‘gynoids’ here?  (Yes, it’s a real term that means female robot and is short for ‘gynecoid’).  And a male android – is there a word for that?  (The answer is no but I’m thinking something like ‘testisoid’).

P.S. ‘oid’ as a suffix means ‘resembling/having the form or appearance of’