Nowadays there are all sorts of new gadgets to make our lives easier. In Japan, there are multifunction appliances like all-in-one microwaves to compensate for the lack of space in tiny apartments. Then there are smart watches that track our heart rate, calories burned and distance covered on our workouts. But what if there was a robot that didn’t have any real purpose other than to keep you company?
Panasonic is going to release Nicobo a robot who does just that. Available from mid-May, this robot doesn’t have any special features aside from facial recognition to check for emotions, a microphone to register speech and occasionally talk back and springs to have it move when you pet it.
Nicobo comes in different colors and is priced at ¥60, 500 but alongside the device, you’ll also need to join a monthly subscription program to keep Nicobo updated at ¥1,100.
Source: Panasonic
Source: https://news.kakaku.com/prdnews/cd=toy/ctcd=7753/id=128335/
Images: https://we.tl/t-bDdJ4rRMnn
© Japan Today
10 Comments
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dagon
Cute, but probably more useful if you use the open source code available to have a voice assistant using ChatGPT.
Moonraker
Stick two eyes and either a mouth or a nose on it and that will do the trick. A stubby tail also works.
ジョージ
Sounds like a very expensive, slight upgrade from a pet rock.
cleo
I looked at the pic, flashed through the article, registered ‘¥1100’ and thought, ‘Yeah, bit expensive, but the grandkids might enjoy it’, then read the article properly and thought ‘No way!’
Not worth the upgrade from pet rock.
Sven Asai
Yes, @dagon is right, for that much money one could buy even a complete notebook computer and run ChatGPT or similar on it as some side entertainment.
dagon
You probably wouldn't even need the notebook.
It has a mike and some sort of upgrade-able processor, or you could put in a Raspberry Pi and have the voice coming out of this hardware. Best of both worlds.
James
Take a sock put some google eyes on it and put your hand in it ... ask it a question and if you change your voice a little can have a conversation...
1glenn
Had our food delivered by a wheeled robot in a Korean tofu restaurant, as it played music. Very surprising. The kids have since told me that they have seen wheeled robots on the sidewalks of West Los Angeles.
Roy Sophveason
That's really not uncommon anymore. Walk into a Gusto, order by tablet, chances are good that you'll be served by what they call a "Neko-chan Robot". I hear they are used in other Skylark Group outfits now, but I can't personally attest to that.
3RENSHO
Priced at ¥60,500 plus a monthly subscription program to keep Nicobo updated at ¥1,100 or ￥13,200 yen per year...?