I find the whole concept of realistic humanoid robots completely silly. I think, by and large, most people would rather have, as you say, a cartoonish styled robot. With the exception of lonely Real Doll aficionados who want the "next level" in artifical girlfriend technology, I think vaguely humanoid features is close enough. Expressions aren't necessary until AI is sufficient enough to *have* emotions, and in that event, I think voice inflection will suffice.

A friendly personality doesn't have to look human. People anthropomorphize everything they interact with anyway, even when it has barely any vaguely humanoid characteristics. Giving it basic face-like features and a voice will do the trick if it has a catchy personality and good voicing.

This kind of research is just creepy and seems like a waste of time to me.

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