It is equipped with a camera in its nose to snap those special moments, it can also better express anger or joy and has a much cheaper price tag - a sign that Sony is getting serious about the pet robot business. Mr Doi said he was confident of the popularity of Aibo, which means companion in Japanese. "Ten years from now, I believe most households will keep two or three personal robots and their performance will increase 100 Times. My expectation is that these robots will be able to talk naturally with humans, say about the latest gossip." Mr Doi stopped short of seeing a future for Aibo as a prototype for utility robots, saying the present technology was too dangerous to be used in designing robots that could guide the blind or provide care to the elderly. Worries also remain over how the robot will fare in markets outside robot-crazy Japan, which has seen the bulk of sales for the first-generation Aibo.

"In Japan, there is little hesitation when playing with robots, something which I'm not sure of in the US and Europe," he said. "But whenever we have exhibits there, we always see a strong response, so I do believe the same thing will happen there - though I think it will take some time," Mr Doi said. Most of the 45,000 first-generation Aibos sold experimentally over the Internet last year were picked up by Japanese buyers - and fast.

The first batch of the 27-CM tall dog-like robot that can go for walks, chase after a ball and wag its tail sold out within 20 minutes. Sony said last month it was ready to handle orders of up to 60,000 robots a month for its second-generation Aibo robot-pet, which will carry a price tag of 150,000 yen ($1,397). The debut version cost 250,000 yen.