C-3PO actor helps with Roboworld reveal

C-3PO is still cheeky with Master Luke.

After reciting a lengthy formal proclamation by Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl declaring yesterday "Carnegie Science Center Robot Day," the British actor who played the "Star Wars" droid paused, and then added an aside in a tone of voice famililar to R2-D2.

"This may be science and technology, but the odd punctuation mark, the odd full stop, wouldn't have gone amiss," Anthony Daniels said.

Daniels was on duty for a news conference yesterday at the Carnegie Science Center to announce Roboworld. The Science Center will open the $3.5 million, 6,000-square-foot exhibit hall next year.

Dressed in black with a gold bow tie rather than his familiar gold metal suit, Daniels explained he had "gone over to the dark side."

The actor has been a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center since 2006.

"At the age of 62, I do have, if not wisdom, certain practical experience that I can share with the students," he said.

He praised the students and what he called their "highly inventive projects," some of which will be used in Roboworld. But that doesn't mean he understands how all the technology works.

"My father was a scientist. I was a disappointment; I became an actor," he said.

Pittsburgh's efforts to reinvent itself as a high-tech city with a robotics focus earn Daniels' full support. But the city has to overcome a "difficult name," he said, which unfortunately evokes something dark and smelly rather than the prime minister and fellow countryman Daniels concedes it was intended to honor.

The actor splits time between Pittsburgh and his homes in London and France. He said he was sorry to be disloyal to his robotic brethren, but he dreads an upcoming flight from London to Los Angeles because it originates at Heathrow Airport's new terminal. A computerized baggage system there has lost thousands of suitcases and caused hundreds of flight cancellations.

"I'm taking a carry-on. That's robotics -- we're not there yet," Daniels said.