Working with motors, sensors, sophisticated algorithms and fuzzy puppets, Cynthia Breazeal may finally realize one of childhood’s fondest dreams: imaginary characters that assume a physical reality, and stories that leap from the page into three dimensions.  Virtual play can take a child only so far, suggests Breazeal, who was inspired by master movie puppeteer Stan Winston. They shared a vision of a “living, breathing droid” — a fabricated creature that could exist off- as well as onscreen. Breazeal has refashioned this idea over the years to meet her evolving goals in artificial intelligence. She pioneered the area of social robotics and human-robot interaction, developing creatures that can actually learn from and work with people. More recently, as a mother of young children, Breazeal has turned her attention to how socially intelligent machines might offer children new forms of expression and better ways to play. She designed a simple robot for preschoolers to decorate and costume, like a “Mr. Potatohead.” Children constructed and participated in a story, finding “the physicality of the character compelling.” Robots that make eye contact and recognizable gestures -- who appear to have a life of their own -- allow kids to improvise around stories “in a way that might not have happened if the stories sprang from a single mind.” Her Media Lab group has also concocted the “Huggable,” a teddy bear-like creature with sensors that allow it to react to human touch. This creature might be used someday by a grandparent, via the Internet, to read a story to a grandchild, or to help a child learn English as a second language. Breazeal is passionate about energizing “kids sitting on their butts watching shows” to become actors in their own stories. She envisions a “mixed reality” medium, enabled by computer, where surfaces are digitally paintable. A kid-colored, computer-based character could interact with its creator in a pirate story, or a child could “...