Android promotes Japan cinema at Cannes Film Festival

Asuna has skin that will never age, can read a script in several languages, and knows how to attract attention at the Cannes Film Festival -- but she's no star actress on the red carpet.

Asuna is a lifelike android standing at the entrance to Japan's pavilion in the market section of the festival, greeting visitors in English, French and Japanese.

Standing next to her, creator Takeshi Mita, head of the firm A-Lab, told AFP she stood out from robots because of her human-like actions and expressions -- but that such mimicry can cause problems.

"The more androids take on human shape, the more people are afraid of them... We had to give certain reactions to her face to get past that fear that humans have regarding androids," he said.

Mita added that scary Hollywood scenarios of androids replacing humans did not convince him.

"For the moment, I would like to see androids more used for business. That's what we're doing at the moment in Japan; they are more and more used in trade shows.

"But there's no possibility of humans being replaced because, in any case, humans have something more that androids never will. I'm not afraid that they will take our place -- I don't think that will be possible."