"People that thought of it as a camera with legs were really pleased, but people that thought of it as a photographer were really disappointed," he says.

Smart thinks those raised expectations were down to the impact of unrealistically human-like robots in movies and books. "People don't really know what they are. C-3PO in Star Wars is very humanlike, intelligent and capable, but real robots are not like that at all."

Instead of just forcing people to alter their expectations, Smart thinks it makes sense to study how people's ideas about robots are influenced by fiction. That knowledge could be used to design robots that make the most of those expectations.

"My real concern is to get people and robots to play together nicely," says Smart.
Engineers might learn from fictional robots in other ways, says Sharkey.

"It would be worthwhile to study the way computer animators make us connect with simple, non-human objects." Pixar's WALL-E, for example, is easy to connect with, he