Robot Hanako, the Japanese dental patient simulator we have shown you last year, just got an upgrade: Hanako 2 still behaves, in many ways, like a human patient, and she still lets dentists practice “real-life” procedures on her before they do the same on human patients. But the new version has been improved.

Maker Tmsuk points out Hanako 2 can sneeze, roll with her eyes and blink, open and close her mouth, cough and even simulate a gag reflex now. Tmsuk also says the new robot boasts better speech recognition – that’s right, Hanako 2 can discuss her condition with the dentist.

What’s also interesting is that Tmsuk cooperated with a maker of “love dolls” (they made this one, for example) to change Hanako’s skin from PVC to silicone, and to form the tongue and cheek linings in one piece (the head also moves in a more natural way now).

Our friends over at Diginfonews in Tokyo went out and shot a video that shows Hanako 2 in action (in English). It’s embedded below: