An alien-looking ping-pong-playing robot named Forpheus served up a hit at a top Tokyo tech fair on Monday. Technicians, who have been working on Forpheus' robotics and artificial intelligence technology, had hoped it would be able to return a smash from Olympian Jun Mizutani. Obviously, Mizutani appeared to have little worry on confronting the smart machine as it failed, at least now, to retrieve his attacking shots.