Robot wine taster

A wine-tasting robot has been developed by researchers in Japan.

The so-called robot-sommelier, or "wine-bot", can "taste" and identify types of wine, and also has the ability to discern and analyse foods.

The 2ft-tall (0.6m) robot, developed by NEC System Technologies and Mie University, uses infrared light to identify different tastes.

The Associated Press says the robot could become personalised to recommend wines to suit its owner's palate.
The green and white robot was initially developed to taste and identify foods, analysing the different kinds and quantities of ingredients within them.

But now its tasting technology has moved into the world of wine, and the robot is capable of distinguishing several different types or blends of grapes.

Hideo Shimazu, director of the NEC System Technology Research Laboratory in Japan, told AP: "There are all kinds of robots out there doing many different things.

"But we decided to focus on wine because that seemed like a real challenge."