Toronto, July 17 - Scientists say humanity is still 50 years from developing robots that will be able to speak in 'human-like' voices, mimic our motions and interact with us. How will we then react to these robots, that have been named androids?

Psychologist Neal J. Roese and computer scientist Eyal Amir from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UI-UC) investigate what such interactions may be like.

By 2060, it is predicted that androids will still be unable to detect aspects of natural language, and be incapable of understanding what they see.

The most difficult development in artificial intelligence (AI) is trying to programme the 'Theory of Mind', or the effortless human ability to process other people's speech, actions, underlying motives, and emotional state.

Roese and Amir predict that by 2060 androids will be used for menial jobs, such as being toll collectors, where the presence of a non-human is practical, but not frightening.