Robotic chimp so real, it's scary

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Here's a look at some hardware and software that's available:

Alive Chimpanzee from WowWee Ltd., stand-alone product requiring four D batteries and one 9-volt battery, $149.99.

It was the coolest, creepiest nightmare-inducing product on display at last year's American International Toy Fair, and now, as Dr. Frankenstein might emote, "It's alive."

The combination of Hollywood special effects and animatronics arrives to curious consumers in the form of a lifelike, full-size chimpanzee bust that has more personality than Furby and requires less care than an IDog.

Psychologists may argue for decades over the damage done in exposing family members to a talking head, but guess what? It's just too cool for any owner to care.

The simian replicates the vocalizations and movements of its wild brethren and can follow a sound; act curious, happy, fearful or feisty; and interact with admirers who pet it. It has realistic skin, hair, teeth and fully animated features to make it a perfect choice to star in a "Night Gallery" episode.

The technological magic behind the beast includes an infrared vision system; touch sensors in its chin, head and ears; stereo sound sensors; and eight motors that control the movement of its head, eyes, mouth, upper lip, eyelids and eyebrows.

Using a hefty wireless controller with two toggle switches, two joysticks and eight buttons, the owner can enact four modes to directly control the chimp, program up to 20 sequences for it to perform, place it in guard mode to warn of an intruder or simply make it come to life and, depending on the mood, react to the environment.

The bust includes an AC/DC adapter so the chimp can keep blinking, snarling, nipping, nodding and keeping my wife out of my office 24 hours a day.

I can see a real niche market for this affordable design in pop-culture realms. Why not create an animatronic bust of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein or Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator or, better yet, a personalized likeness of the owner that also comes with audio snippets of the person's voice?