The Japanese really seem to like their robots of any shape or form much more so than any other nation…
The country’s largest automaker, Toyota, has just announced that it will be bringing a cute but rather creepy robotic doll of sorts to the Tokyo Motor Show.
They call it Kirobo Mini and say it’s a “new compact-sized communication partner with the same heart that won the robot astronaut Kirobo legions of fans.” The first Kirobo was a “space astronaut,” or the robotic companion for Japan’s first International Space Station commander who went up to the orbital base in 2013.
The new Kiribo Mini could perhaps be mass produced. It too is a robo companion, but smaller than before, and meant “to communicate with people through expressions and gestures, bringing smiles to their faces through daily exchanges that chart the course of an evolving relationship.”
The part about the evolving relationship is the creepy and not so cute part of the proposition…
Photo Gallery
