Week in Photos: Record Truffle, Robot Dental Exam, More
Tokyo, Japan, November 28, 2007—A humanoid robot opens wide for a mock dental exam on Wednesday at the 2007 International Robot Exhibition, Japan's largest robotics convention.
The life-size android has a mouth fitted with replica teeth for denistry students to practice on. The teeth include sensors where human nerve endings would be, so that the robot can squeal with "pain" if the dentist-in-training drills too close.
(Watch a video of the dental android and other robots featured at the convention.)
"Our aim is to train dentists to worry about whether patients are comfortable and not just focus on technical expertise," the robot's co-developer Naotake Shibui, of the Nippon Dental University in Tokyo, told the Associated Press.
