She may have all the charm of flesh-colored silicone, but a negligee-clad rubber doll named Roxxxy is being billed as the first of a legion of sex robots poised to become man's new best friend.

Unveiled at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas over the weekend, Roxxxy was developed by New Jersey-based True Companion and engineer Douglas Hines, and she's way more than a blow-up doll. She's basically an anatomically correct bot engineered to interact with users by responding to simple conversation through an internal speaker. All responses, though, are prerecorded.

Depending on the personality you choose--"Wild Wendy" or "Frigid Farrah" for instance--Roxxxy may purr a metallic, "That gets me hot!" after you introduce a topic like soccer.

Getting excited yet? Well, get this. Roxxxy is so soccer-savvy she can even discuss Manchester United. Apparently, she also snores.

Another possible detraction--some of her voices sound more like Stephen Hawking's vocal synthesizer than that of a hot human female. Roxxxy also has sensors on various parts of her 5-foot, 7-inch, 120-pound body and can tell when she's being touched. No word yet on whether nibbling her ear drives the machine wild.

Hines apparently wants to charge $7,000 to $9,000 for Roxxxy and an attached laptop running its software.

He believes, like David Levy, author of "Love and Sex With Robots," that robots can become genuine companions for people by providing intimacy and pleasure.

Roxxxy may be just a stiff chatterbox for now. But who knows what a few actuators and makeup would do?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10432597-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20