When the PaPeRo R100 one-foot-tall robot debuted at the RoboFesta Kanagawa back in 2001, it could speak hundreds of words, remember the faces of up to 10 people, and dance.

NEC must have felt that the PaPeRo R100 needed a companion, so the company designed a virtual version. With CG PaPeRo, you can install it to a PC or PDA, and can do all the same things that the robot version does. What's neat about CG is that you can have a conversation with the robot version, then download the convo into the CG version and pick up the conversation where it left off.

NEC hopes to adapt this kind of technology for use in cell phones, GPS, and other devices.

In the meantime, we hope to get details on when, or if, the PaPeRo goes on sale.

For more information, read PC Magazine's Lance Ulanoff's report.