In the 21st Century, Barbie Dolls should be able to move. That is why Segatoys proudy presents Ema, a one-of-a-kind female robot that reacts and engages with her owner. There is a sensor under her helmet, so when you get close to her face, she will gently kiss on your cheek.

Designed with a fit body and strong muscles, Ema can dance and remember up to 80 steps including legs, arms, and head movements. This amazing female robot walks like a model, and she has her own music playing through the back speaker.

Ema also enjoys her owner’s music, and her hands are designed to accept business cards from her client. Available only from Segatoys, Japan.

With the relentless march of technological progress, robots and other automated systems are getting ever smarter. At the same time they are also being given greater responsibilities. But should they be trusted to take on such tasks, and how can we be sure that they never take a decision that could cause unintended harm?

The growing debate over the challenges posed by increasingly powerful and independent robots says its just a matter of time until a computer or robot takes a decision that will cause a human disaster, they say. So are there things we can do to minimize the risks? Take a look at several strategies that could reduce the danger from our own high-tech creations.

1. Keep them in low-risk situations

Make sure computers and robots never have to make a decision where the consequences can’t be predicted in advance.

Likelihood of success: Extremely low. Engineers are already building computers and systems whose actions they cannot always predict.

2. Do not give them weapons!

Likelihood of success: Too late. Semi-autonomous robotic weapons systems, including cruise missiles and Predator drones, already exist.

While military planners are interested in the development of robotic soldiers as a means of reducing deaths of human soldiers during warfare, it may not be too late to restrict which weapons they carry, or the situations in which the weapons can be used.

3. Give them rules like Asimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics’

Likelihood of success: Moderate. Asimov was writing fiction, not building robots. In story after story he illustrates problems that would arise with even these simple rules, such as what the robot should do when orders from two people conflict.

Asimov’s rules task robots with some difficult judgements. For example, how could a robot know that a human surgeon cutting into a patient was trying to help them? But, rules can successfully restrict the behaviour of robots that function within very limited contexts.

Just imagine it. Consumer products that won’t break if accidentally dropped, devices with flexible screens that can be rolled up, and products becoming a lot cheaper.

The problem with this has always been the chips in such devices. With plastic being 1000 times less conductive than today’s semi-conductors, it has failed to make the grade into mainstream use.

For the longest time, plastic was thought of as an insulating material that could not conduct electricity, but ground-breaking research in the 70s has proved that specially designed plastics could do so.

Lately there has been an increasing interest into specially developed plastic that will be able to conduct as well and possibly even better than most existing semiconductors. With plastics being easier to manufacture, more flexible and, consuming less energy, the future applications seem almost imaginary from flexible laptops to screens only a cm thick.