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　　“OK,” you may say,/“but how about the human-AI interactions we already enjoy?// I can talk to my smartphone.// I ask her a question.// She answers.// We communicate.”// But is that really communication?// How often does your smartphone call you  up?//
　　Okada wants us/to think of a more intimate human-robot relationship.// Real communication/is not a matter of me  talking to you /and you  talking to me,/but rather a case of us /communicating with one another.// Is this sort of communication possible/between humans and robots?// Perhaps.//
　　Think of babies.// Babies cry for milk.// They show their satisfaction by becoming quiet.// Parents learn to listen to the way their baby cries/and watch their baby’s reactions.// Although no words are exchanged,/a real form of communication exists between them.//
　　Raising an infant involves interaction.// The baby is cared for/and gets the milk that it wants.// The parents experience joy/in looking after the child.// The baby’s helplessness and weakness/draw out the parents’ love and support.// Could this natural form of communication/also take place between humans and robots?// Okada is looking at how such a coexistence might occur.//
　　In order to explore this possibility,/Okada and his colleague made Mako-no-te,/a small one-armed robot which can walk.// When walking hand-in-hand,/the robot gives you cues,/adjusting the direction and speed/by pulling your hand with its arm.// You infer the robot’s intentions.// Apparently,/just walking with the robot/helps you build an interpersonal relationship with it.// A kind of natural form of communication/seems to be taking place/between the human and the robot.//