During the Expo, 37 robotic Haibao, the blue mascot, take up their posts at the city's two airports – Hongqiao and Pudong and throughout the Expo area itself. They will provide an extensive variety of vocal informational services in six languages, for people planning their routes to a local destination, checking weather forecasts, or looking for details on Expo displays and performances.

Japan, long a pacesetter in robotics, brings a mechanical butler to Shanghai. The joints of its limbs are almost as flexible as those of human, enabling it to make delicate movements. At your request, it can even play the violin.

The Swedish Pavilion presents a chorus of 22 robot singers using voice synthesis and artificial intelligence, a charming blend of technology and music.

China has developed the stuntbot. One model, with fine joints and sharp sensors, can simulate human body movement with such subtlety that it can do taiji. Aic, a robot chef in the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion, can whip up a dish, Chinese or Western, once the order is placed and materials provided. It does the cooking exactly the way a human chef would, and the results have won nods from most taste-testers. The market potential is huge: its developer got several orders placed before the opening of the Expo.

In the Shaanxi Pavillion, "Tang Emperor Xuanzong" and his voluptuous concubine "Yang Yuhuan" – robots recreated from silica gel and wires – greet incoming visitors. The life size couple feature unnervingly realistic skin that even shows veins. Their facial expressions are also fine and subtle – as you'll discover when you start a conversation with them and watch while they distinguish both the human faces and voices taking part.

Sound and Image

Audio-visual technologies are making leaps and bounds these days, bringing substantive benefits to our lives that are not confined to home entertainment.

The biggest plasma panel screen in the world (at 152 inches) stands in the Japanese Pavilion. The "Life Wall" from Panasonic actually uses three screens on one big wall. In living rooms of the future the wall becomes the screen by the operation of a remote control. You can even adjust the size of the picture.

Not to be outdone, the adjacent Chinese Pavilion also sports a multimedia feature. In its core exhibition area the famous panoramic painting from the Northern Song (960-1127), Qingming Festival at the Riverside, is projected on a 100-meter wall. Modern multimedia technology enables the more than 1,500 characters in the work to come alive, walk around and do business as depicted.

The Urban Planet, one of the five theme pavilions, features a replica of the earth 32 meters in diameter. A section of the tunnel running through it is pitch dark, obscuring a mass of cameras housed there. When visitors reach the end of this "journey of darkness," they can spot their faces appearing on the 6-meter-tall dome overhead as their "avatars" participate in an episode of an environment-themed film. At the end of the show all faces fade out and a logo pops up: we have only one Earth.

The entry by State Grid, a Chinese power supplier, is dubbed the "Magic Box," and appears as a metallic square with a crystal cube set inside, but its leading attraction is a 20-meter-high cubic theater. Wrapped in six screens on all sides that can whirl 720 degrees during projection, it conjures up an "on the scene" illusion for viewers. Its exciting 16-track audio system doesn't let down virtual adventurers either.

Audio-visual tactics have been selected by several other nations bidding for visitor attention. The Saudi Pavilion houses the world's largest 3D theater in a space the size of two basketball courts, with an impressive 1,600-square-meter circular screen.

The New Zealand Pavilion, focusing on Cities of Nature: Living in Sky and Earth, exposes visitors to a composite cityscape in a natural setting in a 112-meter multimedia walkway.

The Swiss Pavilion continuously screens an abridged version of the 2005 film The Alps by IMAX Corporation on its 10-meter-high screen.

The tropical-forest-like Brazil Pavilion expresses admirably its title – "Pulsing Cities: Feel the Life of Brazilian Cities" – on a panoramic stage using cutting-edge audio-visual technologies that consist of 4 rectangular screens, each about 48 square meters. The ceiling and the floor have projected images to go with the surrounding urban scenes. Visitors stepping into this room will feel as if they are touring a Brazilian city in person.

The Hall of Innovation is the centerpiece of the Israel Pavilion. A special audio – visual show allows visitors to talk with Israeli children, scientists, doctors and inventors via hundreds of screens. These Israelis introduce themselves and share their hopes for a better future.