I'm in a lab surrounded by computer and video equipment, toys, and robots. Lots of robots. I'm like a kid in a candy shop. It's the modern equivalent of an Aladdin's cave for otaku (geeks).

Some of the robots I even recognize. There's the white-skinned humanoid, Nexi, an MDS (mobile, dexterous, social) creation ranked 17th in Time magazine's "Best Inventions of 2008." Then there's Maddox, which is a larger, silver version of Nexi.

Here's fluffy Leonardo, one of the most expressive robots ever made, who looks like a friendly Mogwai from the film "Gremlins." But Tofu is perhaps the cutest; a furry blob of soft matter.