<P>Cynthia Breazeal here presents her vision of the sociable robot of the future, asynthetic creature and not merely a sophisticated tool. A sociable robot will be able to understandus, to communicate and interact with us, to learn from us and grow with us. It will be sociallyintelligent in a humanlike way. Eventually sociable robots will assist us in our daily lives, ascollaborators and companions. Because the most successful sociable robots will share our socialcharacteristics, the effort to make sociable robots is also a means for exploring human socialintelligence and even what it means to be human.Breazeal defines the key components of socialintelligence for these machines and offers a framework and set of design issues for theirrealization. Much of the book focuses on a nascent sociable robot she designed named Kismet.Breazeal offers a concrete implementation for Kismet, incorporating insights from the scientificstudy of animals and people, as well as from artistic disciplines such as classical animation. Thisblending of science, engineering, and art creates a lifelike quality that encourages people to treatKismet as a social creature rather than just a machine. The book includes a CD-ROM that shows Kismetin action.</P>