President Obama stood his ground in an encounter with an advanced humanoid robot in Japan over the weekend, shrugging off its threatening body language and obvious desire to destroy humanity. Obama came face to face with HRP-4C, notorious for her attempts to beguile complacent humans with a cute song and dance routine. Developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), the infamous fembot was cunningly designed with a human face to fool members of our species. Meeting the droid on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Yokohama, however, Obama merely smiled when she defiantly raised her large man hands. He lavished attention on Paro, a therapeutic robot seal also developed by AIST.

If you dig old-school player pianos, how about a pair of robotic hands that plays keyboard? Visitors to the ongoing Taipei International Robot Show (TIROS) are getting an eyeful of a number of quirky robots, including a robot that uses 10 fingers to play tunes on a keyboard. The bot is the work of Taiwan's Hiwin Technologies and can play complex melodies with its multiple digits. Hiwin makes ball screws and components such as linear motors, which were used in the keyboard player. Hiwin reportedly said its player is the first to use 10 fingers to tickle the ivories. However, it seems to be less sophisticated than WABOT 2, a humanoid musician developed in Japan over a quarter-century ago.

The cyborg armies of the future just got one step closer to total domination. Probably by taking a break from building giant fighting robots, scientists at the University of Tokyo have created the RatCar, a wheeled contraption controlled by a rat's brain. The researchers wanted to prove a simple idea right: that animals could use the parts of their brains that control limbs to control a vehicle. It looks like they can. The goal of the research was to see if it might eventually be feasible for paralyzed people to control wheelchairs using brain implants.

Remember the adorable little Murata Girl, aka Seiko-chan? The unicycle-riding robot out of Japan has gotten an upgrade. Now, in addition to riding forward and backward at 2 inches per second and idling in place, she can ride a curved balance beam less than an inch wide--without falling off. In all fairness, Seiko-chan was previously able to navigate a straight balance beam, but being able to ride an S-shaped beam clearly ups her value as a performer. Seiko-chan stands about 19 inches tall, weighs about 13 pounds, and can be controlled via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

Now you can blame your robot. Panasonic has developed a hair-washing bot that lets you lie down while your locks are gently shampooed. Designed for Japan's growing elderly and bedridden population, the device consists of a reclining chair and a computerized washbasin. The machine incorporates robot hand technology, with 16 mechatronic magic fingers that rinse and wash hair. It also remembers each user's individual data, such as head shape and massage preferences.

Panasonic's mascot robot Mr. Evolta is known for amazing stunts like climbing out of the Grand Canyon, but his latest feat will take him through the middle of Japan on a 300-mile march from Tokyo to Kyoto. Mr. Evolta has appeared in various incarnations under the guiding hand of robot designer Tomotaka Takahashi. His current form is a small humanoid robot pulling an medieval-style daihachiguruma two-wheeled cart. The 7-inch-tall, 2.2-pound humanoid walks in a rotating plastic cylinder like a hamster wheel, pulling his battery cart. He's remote-controlled and runs on 12 AA Evolta batteries, with a top speed of 2-3mph.

Japan has added another soldier to its humanoid robot army following last year's fembot supermodel. The HRP-4 is the latest edition in the state-backed humanoid project. It's leaner, lighter, and can balance itself with yogic ease. Developed by bridge builder Kawada Industries and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), the HRP-4 can stand on one leg, track faces and objects, and respond to voice commands. HRP-4 sports a RoboCop look, but it's more C-3PO.

Geminoid F, the uncannily lifelike fembot we saw in April, is back in a new PR vid from Kokoro, a Tokyo-based entertainment company that collaborates with Osaka University's Hiroshi Ishiguro in the creation of androids both feminine and creepy. Geminoid F was so named because it's a nearly exact replica of a human female model, seen here. In the new video, the robot calls itself "Actroid F," as it has joined the ranks of other Actroid robots produced by Kokoro. The air servo-powered fembots can be rented for trade shows and other events. While Actroid F can move its eyes, mouth, head, and back, it can also act as a telepresence robot.

The RoboCup Federation, a nonprofit organization based in Japan, aims to develop autonomous humanoid robots that are advanced enough to pit themselves against human World Cup champions by 2050. While we're probably still some way off from the military drones in "Iron Man 2," the organizers of the yearly RoboCup competition, which will take place in Singapore between June 21 and 24, hope the event will fuel interest among students of robotics and artificial intelligence. At the press conference Thursday morning, we learned from Jonathan Kua that the committee aims to develop more robotics solutions for the medical, logistics, and transportation industries. Kua is a member of the steering committee for RoboCup 2010 and director of new businesses at the Singapore Economic Development Board. Tan Hang Cheong, co-chair of the steering committee for RoboCup 2010, and principal of Singapore Polytechnic, added that "a couple of millions" have been invested to put together this competition.

In the two-plus months since the creation of open-source drivers for Microsoft's Kinect made it possible to hack the popular motion controller, the device has been used as a sophisticated piano, to add voice control to popular video games, to create 3D renderings of a car's path, and even for a demo of soft-core porn. Indeed, the open-source tools have snatched control of the device from Microsoft's proprietary hands, and each new day sees the emergence of some new kind of Kinect hack. But as the community of techies investing time in these types of imaginative--and unauthorized--works grows and each new hack pushes the envelope a little more, it's natural to wonder just how far hackers can go. What are, in other words, the outer limits of Kinect hacking? "I truly believe that those who [say] that the sky is the limit [have] limited imagination," said Kristoffer Risanger, the founder of a site called Kinect Hacks that aggregates the latest efforts by the fledging community to do things with the device that Microsoft never intended.